Polygamist leader says 'not guilty' to Ariz. charges
 
By Amanda Lee Myers
The Associated Press
Casper Star-Tribune - Casper, Wyoming
 
KINGMAN, Ariz. -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs entered a not guilty plea Wednesday to sex charges stemming from the arranged marriages of three teenage girls to older men.

The court appearance was Jeffs' first in Arizona, where prosecutors filed charges against him even before he faced charges in Utah. He was convicted there last year of rape as an accomplice in the arranged marriage of a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

A thin-as-ever Jeffs, flanked by three law enforcement officers, wore an orange-and-white-striped jail uniform and ankle and wrist cuffs.

He had a slight smile when he walked into the courtroom, and talked in hushed tones with his lawyers.

The only thing he said during the hearing was "yes" when Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn asked him if he was Warren Jeffs. Otherwise, Jeffs sat quietly with no expression on his face and hands folded in his lap.

His lawyer, Mike Piccarreta, entered the not guilty plea on his behalf. After the hearing, Piccarreta said "it's difficult times" for Jeffs, but declined to speak further, saying he was just worried about handling the case.

Conn ordered Jeffs held in the Mohave County jail without bond and set a case management hearing for March 19.

Jeffs was returned to Kingman Tuesday from Utah, where he had begun serving his prison term for his conviction there.

Piccarreta has said he plans to ask the judge for a change of venue, saying Kingman is too close to St. George, Utah, the site of Jeffs' first trial, for him to get a fair trial here.

"If people want to give Mr. Jeffs a fair trial, we have to hold it in an area as far away as practical from the other case in Utah," he said Tuesday. "And that case to me is an example of what occurs when you don't take the case away from people that have lots of knowledge and local publicity that has tainted the jury panel."

Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith has said the trial should be held in his county because that's where the alleged crimes occurred.

Smith said Wednesday Jeffs' trial could begin in six to eight months. If convicted on all charges, Jeffs could get anywhere from probation to between six and 27 years in prison.

"To have a jury verdict of guilty would be vindication for what we've done, and show that these cases are not about religious persecution or polygamy," Smith said. "They have to do with underage sex practices involving men that are much older than the girls involved."

He's charged in Arizona as an accomplice with four counts of incest and four counts of sexual contact with a minor in an indictment handed up last year. He also was arraigned on two additional counts, one of sexual conduct with a minor and one of conspiracy to conduct sexual conduct with a minor from a case filed in 2005.

The 2007 cases stem from the arranged marriages of a man in his early 50s to his 17-year-old relative and a marriage between a 19-year-old man and his 14-year-old cousin -- the same marriage that led to the Utah conviction.

Prosecutors in Arizona say that doesn't preclude them from bringing charges here.

Smith said the witness in those cases are solid, but the witness in the 2005 case is iffy. That case involves the arranged marriage between then-16-year-old Candi Shapley and Randolph Barlow, now 34, who was more than a decade older than her when they married.

In a move that stunned prosecutors, Shapley refused to testify against Barlow at his 2006 trial. Shapley had previously cooperated with authorities while other alleged victims hadn't.

At the time, Smith said the girl's mother had previously said she would do whatever she needed to do to keep her daughter from testifying or harming Jeffs.

Barlow was cleared of sexual assault charges after Shapley refused to testify.

"It's no secret that one of the victims in the past was not willing to testify, and I think that's certainly something that could happen again, and I'm trying to find that out as soon as possible," Smith said Wednesday.

Jeffs is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints based in Colorado City, Ariz. and nearby Hildale, Utah.

He was a fugitive for nearly two years and was on the FBI's Most Wanted list when he was arrested during a traffic stop outside Las Vegas.

Jeffs was named president, or prophet, of the FLDS church in 2002. Members of the church live in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

The mainstream Mormon church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, renounced polygamy more than a century ago, excommunicates members who engage in the practice and disavows any connection with the FLDS church.
 
CasperStarTribune.net
Originally published Thursday, February 28, 2008
 
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