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Prosecution close to resting case against Jeffs AP By WILL WEISSERT - Associated Press SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — Prosecutors are still questioning their final witness in the Texas trial of a polygamist leader accused of sexually assaulting two girls he took as brides during so-called spiritual marriages. Texas Ranger Nick Hanna was on the stand for a second day Wednesday, and prosecutors were close to resting their case against Warren Jeffs. The 55-year-old leads the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.

Jury hears tapes of polygamist discussing sex APBy WILL WEISSERT - Associated Press San ANGELO, Texas (AP) — Prosecutors played two audio recordings Tuesday of a polygamist sect leader instructing his 14-year-old "spiritual wife" and several other young women on how to please him sexually, and thus win favor with God. Warren Jeffs, 55, is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. He is accused of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, he took as brides in what his church calls "spiritual marriages." A forensic analyst...

Whatever happens to Warren Jeff -- the media Is already guilty by Mike Watkiss azfamily.com Posted on July 31, 2011 at 4:53 PM Updated yesterday at 4:54 PM SAN ANGELO, Texas - The story of Warren Jeffs and polygamy in America did not start when Texas Rangers raided the YFZ Ranch and it will not end with Mr. Jeffs' trial here in San Angelo. The truth is, the history is long and the stories plentiful enough to fill-up libraries. But listening to many of the talking heads on the networks and cable shows these days, you would think that they...

Jeffs' rambling provides courtroom theater * By Kiah Collier * San Angelo Standard Times * Posted July 30, 2011 at 7:16 p.m. SAN ANGELO, Texas — We all expected Warren Jeffs' trial to be interesting. What we didn't expect was for it to get so interesting so fast. On Thursday, the first big bomb dropped. Jeffs fired his seasoned, high-profile defense team and delivered a mostly incoherent 30-minute speech in which he asked for more time to prepare the "pure defense" he said his attorneys could not provide. Jeffs firing his attorneys was surprising, but not necessarily an unexpected move:...

In a single dramatic hour Friday, the course of the San Angelo, Texas, trial against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs might have changed course. With a rambling outburst that included a malediction against the prosecutors, a defense of polygamy, and direct quotes from "the Lord God," Jeffs broke his prolonged silence in the trial, then continued to interrupt proceedings throughout the rest of the day. The outbursts could merely be a continuation of Mr. Jeffs's apparent legal tactic: delay. But they also have also effectively turned the courtroom into a pulpit for the leader of the breakaway Fundamentalist Church of...

Judge says polygamist leader can represent himself WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Updated 04:34 p.m., Thursday, July 28, 2011 SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs dismissed his high-powered defense team and began representing himself Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to delay the start of his sexual assault trial. With opening statements set to begin, the 55-year-old ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints said he had spent extensive time training his lawyers, but they weren't able to present "a pure defense." He then pleaded for more time to prepare the case...

Motion to be heard in Jeffs' trial July 27th, 2011 @ 7:28am By ksl.com SAN ANGELO, Texas -- A jury has been selected, but the trial of polygamist religious sect leader Warren Jeffs won't have opening statements without at least one more hearing. And, a Utah woman whose testimony was central in a previous case against Jeffs is saying his case in Texas will be shocking. Jeffs' defense has filed a motion to suppress evidence. They argue that the evidence seized during a raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas, was not properly obtained. However, the same...

The first hint of polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs' defense strategy came Monday when his attorney said his right to freedom of religion was trampled by Texas prosecutors, who claim he sexually assaulted two underage girls after manipulating them into "spiritual marriages." Jury selection began Monday in the case of the 55-year-old ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The church's 10,000 members see Jeffs as a prophet.

Warren Jeffs' Sexual Assault Trial Set To Start Monday By the CNN Wire Staff POSTED: Monday, July 25, 2011 UPDATED: 10:01 am EDT July 25, 2011 (CNN) -- Jury selection in the sexual assault trial of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs will begin in Texas on Monday, nearly a week after his motion to remove a judge assigned to him was denied. Jeffs is charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child and one count of bigamy stemming from a 2008 raid on a ranch operated by his church. Authorities raided the Yearning For Zion ranch near Eldorado,...

Flora Jessop never believed that Warren Steed Jeffs, the man she was taught to revere as son and heir of the "prophet, seer and revelator of God," would ever face justice -- let alone Texas justice. She didn't believe it when she was 13 and sexually assaulted beneath a smiling photograph of Jeffs inside the Hildale, Utah compound run by the breakaway Mormon sect where she was born to a polygamist family. And she didn't believe it three years later, when she was forced by leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) to marry...

Polygamist leader’s request to remove judge denied SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A visiting judge on Tuesday denied polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs’ second attempt to remove the West Texas judge overseeing his upcoming sexual assault trial, this time because of alleged bias after she made calls to inquire about progress in the case and accepted extra police protection because of threats associated with it. Judge John Hyde of Midland listened to more than five hours of testimony on Jeffs’ motion to recuse District Judge Barbara Walther during a hearing Monday but wrote a day later that much of it rested...

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is calling for Canada's polygamy law that bans multiple marriages to be found unconstitutional and "relegated to the scrap heap of history." In written submissions filed Thursday, the association urged B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman to find that the law offends fundamental freedoms.

  COLORADO CITY, AZ (ABC 4 News) - Polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs of the FLDS Church is sending "A Warning to the Nation" that catastrophe awaits unless he is freed and the FLDS people get back control of the land in the United Effort Plan Trust. 600 Packets This warning reportedly targets members of Congress and the Obama Administration. Several sources in Colorado City, Arizona say Jeffs' followers mailed more than 600 packets to Washington D. C. The packets contained not only the Jeffs' warning, but also a 900 page petition signed by approximately 13,500 followers of Warren Jeffs. Of...

A purge may be underway in the polygamous communities of Hildale-Colorado City on the Utah-Arizona border. 2News has been told even men who were in FLDS leadership positions have been ousted from the sect. "There's a big shake up," said Isaac Wyler, long-time resident of Colorado City. "There are a lot of people who are shaken by what's happened with their families." Wyler was one of three people, close to the communities, who spoke to 2News Tuesday night. Perhaps as many as three dozen men have been told to leave over the past two months, and the orders to get...

VANCOUVER — In 2005, two fathers from the fundamentalist Mormon community of Bountiful, B.C., drove their 12-year-old daughters across the U.S. border. They went separately and, in one case, the girl’s mother went along. The purpose of the trips? Marriage, according to documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court Friday. The girls were “sealed for time and eternity” in religious ceremonies to Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints... The ceremonies took place in the FLDS-controlled twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. In one case, both the girl’s mother and...

ST. GEORGE — A man charged with rape following his "spiritual marriage" to a 14-year-old cousin pleaded guilty to reduced charges... Allen Glade Steed, 29...originally facing a single charge of rape, a first-degree felony, pleaded guilty to solemnization of a prohibited marriage, a third-degree felony, and entered a plea in abeyance to a second charge of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, also a third-degree felony... "Allen will truly never understand the magnitude of the scars that I will carry for the rest of my life. And Warren Jeffs will never understand the scars and the ways that he has...

She met her husband for the first time half-an-hour before they married. By that evening, they were driving the 18-hour trip up to the Canadian border where she entered as a visitor, claiming to be staying with friends. No, no, not a lie. “My husband was my friend.’’ She had just turned 17 and was wife No. 3 to a man “in his late 30s or early 40s,” a fellow of high standing in Bountiful, the secretive hamlet populated almost exclusively by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway polygamous Mormon sect in...

Water torture of babies is one way some members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day instil fear of authority, a former member testified Wednesday. "It's quite common," Carolyn Blackmore Jessop told the constitutional reference case to determine whether Canada's polygamy law is valid. "They spank the baby and when it cries, they hold the baby face up under the tap with running water. When they stop crying, they spank it again and the cycle is repeated until they are exhausted." It's typically done by fathers and it's called "breaking in," she said. Ms. Jessop, who is...

A Utah polygamous family whose reality TV show launched a criminal bigamy investigation has moved out of state. In an e-mail to The Associated Press, the Washington-based attorney who represents the family, Jonathan Turley, said Kody Brown has moved his family of four wives and 16 kids to Nevada to pursue new opportunities. The family is featured on the TLC reality show "Sister Wives." The show first aired in the fall and triggered an investigation by Lehi police into allegations of bigamy. "There were no pending charges against them in Utah," Turley wrote. "I see no legal reason why their...

An article from guest author Angela Lash The True Cost of Polygamy Mainstream Mormons (also known as Latter Day Saints) denounced polygamy officially in 1890 but members of fundamentalist sects of Mormonism (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) are doing all they can to make this “alternative lifestyle” acceptable. Using the freedom of religion clause from the 1st amendment, adherents say plural marriage is their right. One such community (of many spread throughout the western United States, Mexico and Canada) is Colorado City, AZ. There, the first amendment is used as cover for molestation, statutory rape, and government fraud. Jon Krakauer, in...