Kingman, USA - The key witness in the trial of an alleged polygamist from Colorado City wrote a letter to the judge in the case complaining of her treatment by prosecutors and anger at being used to help bring down polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.
Candi Shapley is the alleged victim of Randolph Barlow, 33, who is charged with two counts of sexual conduct with a minor for his ‘‘spiritual marriage'' to her when she was underage.
Shapley also has been called a key witness in the Mohave County prosecution of Jeffs, the leader of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, based in Colorado City and nearby Hildale, Utah.
Jeffs, 50, was captured after more than a year on the run outside Las Vegas on Aug. 28. In addition to charges in Arizona related to arranging plural marriages between teenage girls and older men, he is facing two more serious felony counts of rape as an accomplice in Washington County, Utah, for a similar incident. Each Utah count carries a penalty of five years to life in prison.
Shapley, 20, refused to testify against Barlow when his trial started on Aug. 29, and Mohave County Judge Steven Conn held her in contempt of court and ordered her confined to a battered women's shelter for a month. She was released after about two weeks at the prosecutor's request.
Before the trial, Shapley wrote a letter to Conn explaining her reluctance to testify. The letter was obtained by the Kingman Daily Miner newspaper last week.
In the letter, Shapley said she felt mistreated by Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith and investigators. She cited her grand jury testimony in June, when she was flown from Salt Lake City to Kingman while her baby was ill and awaiting brain surgery.
She wrote that she told the grand jury ‘‘whatever they wanted me to say'' in order to go back to her baby.
She complained that after being promised her testimony would be secret it was immediately disclosed to the media. She said that put her in the spotlight, and media started to chase her around.
‘‘I was very harassed (by the media), thanks to Matt (County Attorney Matt Smith) and his cronies,'' Shapley wrote.
Shapley said her contact with county Special Investigator Gary Engels was unpleasant and said Engels told her directly she would be used to bring down Warren Jeffs.
‘‘He said that he did not care how I felt or anyone else, that he was going to bring Warren Jeffs down. So this was really about Warren Jeffs. They don't care about me or me being a supposed victim,'' Shapley wrote.
She said prosecutors threatened her with jail if she didn't testify, and they also threatened to arrest her parents because they thought they were pressuring her not to testify out of loyalty to Jeffs.
Shapley said she became angry with prosecutors.
‘‘I certainly don't feel like I have been justly dealt with. I am the supposed victim. I didn't feel too bad about testifying when this began. But now I am angry. I have been treated like someone with no feelings,'' she wrote.
Shapley claimed she had a wonderful family and a happy childhood and was ready to marry when her parents arranged a plural marriage between her and Randolph Barlow. Court files suggested she was 16 or 17 years old at the time of the marriage.
She said married life was more difficult than she expected, but argued, ‘‘tell me, have you never had problems in your married life? Is there anyone who has not had problems?''
Shapley later left Barlow, moved out of the polygamous community and broke ties with the FLDS church.
Smith said he was familiar with the letter's contents.
‘‘I agree there were some things that could have been handled better by my office,'' he said. ‘‘However, what's in the letter has been greatly exaggerated and might have been influenced by the members of FLDS church, more specifically Candi's parents. They have indicated they would do anything they can to protect Warren Jeffs and indicated they do not want Candi to testify in any of those cases.''
Smith said he hopes Shapley will testify against Barlow when his trial resumes Tuesday.
Mik Jordahl, Shapley's attorney, said she is considering testifying but he has seen no sign so far she has changed her mind.
The FLDS Church split from the mainstream Mormon Church when the Mormons disavowed polygamy more than 100 years ago. Warren Jeffs took over the renegade sect after the death in 2002 of his 98-year-old father, Rulon Jeffs.