Prosecutors get more time for response in FLDS leader's case
 
By JIM SECKLER
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN - A Mohave County Superior Court judge allowed more time Tuesday for prosecutors to respond to Warren Jeffs attorney's motion to suppress evidence found in a Texas raid.

Jeffs' attorney, Mike Piccarreta, filed a motion last week to suppress evidence discovered in April at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' compound in Eldorado, Texas.

Superior Court Judge Steven Conn gave Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith until Friday to respond.

Jeffs, 52, is charged in Mohave County with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor in two 2007 cases involving two underage girls. The crimes allegedly took place in the summers of 2002 and 2003.

Piccarreta's motion claims that the phone call that triggered the Texas raid was a hoax and officers used the hoax to obtain a warrant to search each house at the compound. Arizona law enforcement officers also spent time in Texas with illegally seized items and documents.

Last month, Conn denied another defense motion to send Jeffs' case back to the Mohave County grand jury. The judge did dismissed four counts of incest filed against Jeffs, the convicted prophet of the polygamist sect in Colorado City. Jeffs was convicted in 2007 in St. George, Utah, on two counts of rape as an accomplice and was sentenced in November to 10 years in prison.

In the meantime, a West Texas grand jury has issued five more indictments in the case against members of the sect.

Schleicher County Clerk Peggy Williams said the grand jury issued five felony indictments against three individuals. She will not release any further information on the charges until the defendants have been served.

The new indictments issued Tuesday bring the total to 16 since authorities raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Texas, looking for evidence of underage marriages and abuse in April.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published Tuesday, September 23, 2008
 
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