Polygamist ordered to give up
 Ariz. attorney general says fugitive Jeffs has one week to comply
 
By Deborah Frazier
Rocky Mountain News
 
Warren Jeffs, the fugitive polygamist leader who has a secluded retreat in southwestern Colorado, has a week to turn himself in, Arizona's attorney general said Tuesday.

A grand jury in Mohave County, Ariz., indicted Jeffs last week on felony child sexual abuse charges for allegedly arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and an older married man in 2002.

Warrants for Jeffs' arrest were sent to Montezuma County in Colorado and Eldorado, Texas, where his followers have built communities, and to Utah and Arizona, where his sect has long been headquartered.

"We'll give him some time to turn himself in, maybe a week, then we will look at other options," said Terry Goddard, Arizona's attorney general. Goddard declined to specify the other options.

Jeffs is president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which splintered off from the traditional Mormon church in the late 1890s.

He has an estimated 10,000 followers in Utah, Arizona, Texas, Canada, Mexico, Nevada and at the southwest Colorado refuge, about 10 miles north of Mancos.

"If Mr. Jeffs is out there and would like to turn himself in and wants to do it in a discreet fashion, we would encourage him to come in with his attorney," said Montezuma County Sheriff Gerald Wallace.

Wallace said Jeffs could pay the $500,000 bond, a court date would be set and he would be released. He said the remote, forested enclave was being watched, but there were no plans to seek Jeffs there.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said he has talked with Goddard and the Utah attorney general about Jeffs, the warrant and the sect.

"We have promised to communicate with each other about developments concerning this sect," said Suthers. "That's all I am willing to acknowledge at this point."

Suthers also said his office has asked Wallace to notify his office about any potential criminal activity.

Jeffs has been sought in several civil cases, including one by a former sect member who sued Jeffs for sodomy, and by Arizona and Utah officials who froze assets in a trust controlled by the sect.

"The criminal indictment was one of the big pieces that was missing," said Goddard. "We are hearing that he is moving around constantly."

A 2004 Arizona law made bigamy with a minor a felony and included language to include parents or others as conspirators, he said.

Goddard also said the Mohave County grand jury was still meeting and there could be more indictments.

An investigator from Goddard's office spent more than a year working on child sexual abuse complaints in Colorado City, Ariz., that involved Jeffs, Goddard said.

In July 2003, a representative for Jeffs bought a 60-acre parcel on the edge of Turkey Creek Canyon near Mancos.

The same representative, David Allred, bought a second 60-acre tract in October 2004. The two parcels are surrounded on three sides by the San Juan National Forest.

On the first parcel, builders replaced a hay barn with a four-bedroom, four-bathroom house and erected two three-story lodges on the canyon rim.

Montezuma County District Attorney James Wilson said there are fewer than 100 people living on the property.

"It's been pretty quiet out there," said Wallace. "We don't believe Jeffs is there. The last thing we want to do is go out there and get into a barricade situation."
 
rockymountainnews.com
Originally published June 15, 2005
 
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