Jeffs team wants trial relocated
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
Warren Jeffs

Warren Jeffs

The defense team for Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs wants his upcoming trial moved out of St. George to Salt Lake County.

"Regardless of what evidence may be presented at trial, the residents of Washington County are likely to be intolerant of Mr. Jeffs as the leader of such a unique religion and will likely be inflamed against him," defense attorney Walter Bugden Jr. wrote in a motion obtained by the Deseret Morning News.

The motion is one in a series filed Tuesday in St. George's 5th District Court seeking to have the jailed polygamist leader's case either tossed out or moved. Jeffs, 51, is scheduled to go on trial beginning April 23 on charges of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. He is accused of performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

To bolster their argument, defense attorneys hired Deseret Morning News pollster Dan Jones and Associates to conduct a survey about Jeffs' case among residents in Washington, Iron and Salt Lake counties. For the survey, 628 people were questioned. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 6.9 percent.

An overwhelming majority of people told Jones they get their information about the Jeffs case from the news media and believe it is accurate. The poll found that in Washington County, 52 percent of those surveyed believe Jeffs is "definitely guilty" and 23 percent believe he is "probably guilty."

In contrast, only 39 percent of those surveyed in Salt Lake County believe Jeffs is "definitely guilty" and another 39 percent believe he is "probably guilty." Jones called the 13 percent difference between the two counties "statistically significant."

Prosecutors were unimpressed.

"We're confident that the citizens of Washington County will provide a fair and unbiased jury pool," deputy Washington County Attorney Brian Filter said Tuesday. "If you look closely at the statistics, they're open to interpretation."

Among the other motions challenging the criminal case against Jeffs, one asks to have the judge declare Utah's rape-as-an-accomplice statute "unconstitutionally vague." Bugden claims the state's broad interpretation of the law infringes on Jeffs' right to religious freedom and criminalizes religious speech.

"The Defendant's use of common religious doctrine, during the marriage ceremony and while he counseled the alleged victim, is being used as the only evidence that the Defendant enticed the alleged victim to consent to sexual intercourse with the principal," Bugden wrote.

Prosecutors have used three statements to claim Jeffs enticed the woman. The first was when Jeffs performed the marriage ceremony, telling the child bride and her husband to "go forth and replenish the earth and multiply" after she was married.

When the victim came back to Jeffs complaining of problems in her marriage, Jeffs told her to "give herself mind, body and soul to her husband." Finally, Jeffs is also accused of ordering the girl to be submissive and obedient.

In asking for the order binding Jeffs over for trial to be quashed, Bugden argues the FLDS leader's position "does not provide sufficient probable cause to infer that the defendant was on notice that the alleged victim expressed lack of consent to sexual intercourse through words and conduct."

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Wednesday, March 7, 2007
 
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