Polygamist sect’s leader extradited

BIG LAKE, Texas – Extradited to Texas two years after being indicted, polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs will be facing Texas prosecutors who haven’t lost a criminal case against his followers since the 2008 raid of his Yearning for Zion ranch.

In the rural courts near the YFZ ranch where Jeffs is considered a prophet, his followers have been reliably convicted by juries that barely deliberate two hours.

Jeffs, the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was quietly extradited to Texas this week from Utah. He remained jailed Thursday, charged with felony bigamy, aggravated sexual assault and assault.

The 2008 raid swept more than 400 children into protective custody and left a dozen men in the church facing charges that include sexual assault and bigamy.

Seven of Jeffs’ followers have been prosecuted since last year, and all were convicted. Only in one case have jurors deliberated more than two hours. The sentences have ranged from six to 75 years.

“The evidence has been clear and convincing to juries,” said Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas attorney general’s office that is prosecuting the cases against FLDS members.

Jeffs is scheduled for trial Jan. 24 on the aggravated sexual assault charge. Prosecutors plan to try him separately on the other charges.

Neither Jeffs, who turns 55 today, nor his church have spoken publicly since he arrived late Tuesday, escorted by Texas Rangers. He is being held without bond in a jail cell to himself in Big Lake, about an hour’s drive west of the Tom Green County Courthouse where he was arraigned Wednesday.

The FLDS, a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven. Historically centered around the Arizona-Utah line, the sect bought a ranch near Eldorado and began building multifamily homes, a dairy and an enormous limestone temple about seven years ago.

Ken Driggs, an Atlanta defense attorney who has written extensively about the polygamist community, said the western Texas community may still not understand the culture of the church, even two years after the raid put the area in the national spotlight.

“I’m not sure the jury pools out there know much about these individuals,” Driggs said. “That may have something to do with the speed of the verdicts.”

But Patrick Metze, a professor at the Texas Tech University School of Law who is familiar with the FLDS attorneys, said the jury pool may be growing tired of the cases.