Tight security surrounds Jeffs
 
By Greg Bucci
Opinion
Mohave Daily News
 
A photo in another Mohave County newspaper showed a phalanx of scary-looking officers guarding Warren Jeffs, the polygamist leader who is on trial in Kingman for several felony sex offenses. Jeffs, reed-thin from a recent fast while incarcerated in Utah, was barely visible as he approached a sheet or cover of some sort while scowling security officers glared at the crowd you couldn't see in the photo.

This newspaper's county and courts reporter, Jim Seckler, told me late last week about the security screws being tightened for the high-profile suspect from Colorado City in the far northern reaches of Mohave County. Jeffs, seen as a prophet by members of his Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints church, is accused of officiating over illegal marriages and a lot of other crimes I won't list here. It's unnecessary because Warren Jeffs is becoming as famous as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Anyway, Jim tells me that photos are strictly prohibited in the courthouse for this case. He couldn't even snap a shot on Pine Street behind the courthouse - the main avenue for prisoners being led to and from the jail to the courtroom.

Jokingly, Jim said, he told one guard that he could just take a photo with his cell phone. To which the guard replied that the cell phone would be taken.

I worked at a local paper when murderers Bobby Poyson, Frank Anderson and Kimberly Lane were being tried for three homicides in Golden Valley. No such restrictions on the media existed in those cases. I published a photo of Poyson, in an ill-fitting suit, being led to the court from the jail. "In the eight years I've been here (covering the courts), I've never seen any restrictions," Seckler told me last week.

But in the case of Warren Jeffs - who is not charged with murder - the lack of restrictions to the media is being superseded by a cautious sheriff's office. To be fair, the MCSO released Jeffs' booking photo. But unlike Washington County, Utah, courtroom photos or TV filming of Jeffs so far have been forbidden. He was first tried in Utah because some of his alleged offenses occurred in Hildale, Utah, Colorado City's next-door neighbor.

I wanted to find out why, so I called Trish Carter, the official spokeswoman for the sheriff's office. I first thought the beefed-up restrictions might have been the result of threats from folks angry at Jeffs.

"We haven't received any threats," Carter said. "It's a high-security situation. Our job is to keep him (Jeffs) healthy."

Carter failed to mention how taking Jeffs' photo would be injurious to his health. Or for that matter, why the MCSO did not at least designate a pool photographer to provide photos for the flock of media gathered in and outside the courtroom.

"There is no direct line to the media," Carter said about the pool photographer procedure used throughout the nation - and this state.

She said of Capt. Greg Smith (of the MCSO): "His number one priority is the safety and security (of Jeffs)."

Carter added that "there is also an element of escape." Several of Jeffs' followers attended the court proceedings during his initial appearance last week. But no FLDS members have been arrested for aiding an escape attempt. I guess it's possible, though, but with all the hardware and personnel in the Mohave County court, highly unlikely.

So why not let a pool photographer in the court or at least give one access to Jeffs' transit to and from jail?

The overreaction is obvious and in my estimation, only serving to give Jeffs more importance than he really deserves.

Greg Bucci is the city editor of the Mohave Valley Daily News.
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published Thursday, March 6, 2008
 
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