Convicted polygamist files Arizona appeal
 
By Jennifer Dobner
The Associated Press
Las Vegas Sun
 
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - An Arizona man convicted last month of having sex with a teenager believed to be his polygamist bride will appeal his case to the Arizona Court of Appeals.

Kelly Fischer, 39, filed the notice Monday with Mohave County Superior Court in Kingman, Ariz., court appellate clerk Naomi Fedderson said.

Fischer is appealing both his July 7 conviction for felony sexual conduct with a minor and felony conspiracy, and Aug. 2 sentence of 45 days in jail and three years probation, documents filed in Mohave County state.

It could take six to eight months before Fischer's case could get on the appellate court's calendar, said Donna Likewise, a deputy clerk for the Court of Appeals.

And it could be three to 12 months before a three-judge panel issues an opinion, she said.

Likewise said Fischer's appeal does not suspend the requirement he serve his jail sentence, which is set to being Nov. 6.

Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith was out of the office Friday and unavailable for comment, spokeswoman Sarah Krumwiede said.

Bruce Griffen, Fischer's attorney said he counseled his client about filing an appeal, but did not file it on Fischer's behalf and will not represent him.

"I do think he has a number of grounds," Griffen said. "There were a number of pretrial motions filed that were denied and some procedures during trial, including some issues with jury instruction, so I think there are a number of legal issues."

The Associated Press attempted to reach Fischer by telephone, but a number listed for him in the Colorado City phone book was disconnected.

Fischer was the first of eight men from Colorado City, Ariz., charged by Mohave County prosecutors with felony sexual conduct with a minor and felony conspiracy to have sex with a minor. Both charges carry penalties of up to two years in state prison.

All eight men are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist sect of nearly 10,000 members who make their home along the Utah-Arizona border.

Prosecutors built their case against Fischer on a birth certificate that listed Fischer, then 33, as the father of a child born to a 17-year-old mother and used the testimony of former FLDS church members who said they saw the pair together.

No victim testified against Fischer during the trial. In fact, the woman identified by prosecutors as Fischer's underage plural wife and "victim" wrote a letter the court asking the judge for leniency and stating her happiness in her marriage.

The next trial, for Randolph Joseph Barlow, 33, is set to begin Aug. 28, Griffen said.

The FLDS church is led by Warren Jeffs, a fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, who authorities in Utah and Arizona have charged with rape and other sex crimes for having arranged plural marriages between teen girls and older men.

Insular and mistrusting of outsiders, the sect has largely been ignored by law enforcement in both states since 1953, when Arizona unsuccessfully tried to end polygamy by rounding up and jailing men and their wives in a pre-dawn raid.

But mounting legal troubles for Jeffs, who is being sued in at least three separate civil actions in addition to criminal charges and a handful of Utah bigamy and child abuse cases has brought increased scrutiny on the practice of polygamy, particularly within the FLDS community.
 
LasVegasSun.com
Originally published August 18, 2006
 
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