Salt Lake City, USA - A traffic stop that led to the arrest of polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs was within legal bounds, a judge ruled Friday.
That means prosecutors will be able to use evidence seized during the stop in Jeffs' criminal trial, now set to begin Sept. 10.
Utah Fifth District Judge James Shumate said Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Eddie Dutchover had legal justification - an obscured temporary registration tag - to stop a Cadillac Escalade in which Jeffs was traveling last August.
A plate holder blocked the bottom portion of the temporary tag, making it unreadable while traveling at freeway speed in the dark, Shumate said.
He rejected Jeffs' attorneys arguments that Nevada law requiring clearly visible plates applies only to licenses and registrations issued by that state.
Under Nevada law, the trooper also had the right to get identifications from Isaac Jeffs, who was driving the vehicle, and Warren Jeffs, who was a passenger.
Warren Jeffs initially rebuffed the trooper, and that alone was reason enough to arrest him, the judge said.
Nevada law also sets a time frame for how long a person may be detained by a peace officer before being arrested or set free: 60 minutes.
Even though a computer system used by the Nevada Highway Patrol was inoperable at the time of the stop, the trooper identified Jeffs as a wanted fugitive within that window, the judge said.
Dutchover pulled over the 2007 Escalade at 9:04 p.m. on Aug. 28 on Interstate 15 north of Las Vegas. He became suspicious when Isaac Jeffs and Warren Jeffs gave conflicting accounts of their travel plans and became visibly nervous.
After observing a GPS unit and radar detector in the vehicle, the trooper said he began to suspect the men might be involved in drug trafficking or money laundering.
In a search of the vehicle, troopers found money, wigs, cell phones and documents addressed to "WSJ" or "the President." That was enough for one trooper to figure out the passenger was the polygamous sect leader wanted by the FBI.
By 9:52 p.m., Dutchover's sergeant and the FBI had been contacted and were en route to the scene, the ruling noted.
Jeffs was subsequently taken into custody. He has been incarcerated at the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane since Sept. 5 on two counts of being an accomplice to rape.
The charges are based on his role conducting a marriage between a 19-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, who has testified she told Jeffs on several occasions she opposed the arranged union.
Attorneys for polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs lost on another front Friday when a Utah judge ruled that two media lawyers will be given copies of motions seeking to seal certain filings.
A hearing to determine what portions, if any, should be kept from the public file is scheduled for July 17 in 5th District Court in St. George.
Motions filed before then that identify the sensitive material will be sealed and covered by a protective order, Judge James Shumate said. That order bars the attorneys, who represent a media coalition that includes The Salt Lake Tribune, from sharing them with their clients prior to the hearing. Jeffs' attorneys had asked for the closure hearing to argue for sealing material that could prejudice a jury pool if released before Jeffs' Sept. 10 trial.
Jeff Hunt, one of the attorneys representing the media, asked Shumate to allow the sealed review so that any arguments against closure weren't made "in the dark." Prosecutors agreed to the review but Jeffs' attorneys objected.