Mohave, USA - An Arizona judge may end up ruling on whether evidence seized by law enforcement officers during the raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch in Texas is legal.
In an order released Wednesday, Mohave County Superior Judge Steven Conn denied a state request for arguments on whether FLDS leader Warren Jeffs should even be allowed to have a hearing to suppress evidence.
"The state's attempt to deny defendant his right to an evidentiary hearing is yet another example of the 'Texas two step' previously referred to by the defendant," Jeffs' attorneys, Michael Piccarreta and Richard Wright, wrote in court documents filed in a Kingman, Ariz., court earlier this month.
Jeffs is seeking to block any evidence seized from last year's raid on the YFZ Ranch from coming into his upcoming trial on sexual misconduct charges, accusing him of performing underage marriages. The 53-year-old polygamist sect leader already has been convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice, for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.
Jeffs is also facing sexual assault of a child and bigamy charges in Texas.
Arizona prosecutors have said they did not plan to use any evidence seized in the raid in Jeffs' upcoming trial, but the judge seemed unconvinced.
"It would appear that both parties are now acknowledging that the defense motion to suppress evidence seized in the Texas search will have to be ruled on," Conn wrote, adding that it is unlikely the court could rule on whether Texas law enforcement exceeded the scope of their search warrant without having evidence presented in a hearing on the scope of the actual search of the FLDS property.
"It will therefore be the defendant's obligation, not the state's, to 'subpoena several witnesses to travel from the state of Texas to testify,' " Conn wrote.
Jeffs' attorneys already have deposed a Texas Ranger, the Schleicher County sheriff and one of his deputies as part of their case. On Wednesday, anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop also was giving a deposition. Jessop had numerous conversations with a Colorado woman suspected of making hoax calls that sparked the raid on the YFZ Ranch.
Law enforcement and child welfare workers went to the ranch in April 2008 to investigate phone calls from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl, pregnant and in an abusive marriage to an older man. The girl was never found, but on site, authorities claimed to have found other signs of abuse, which prompted a judge to order the removal of all of the children.
The 439 children were returned to their families when a pair of Texas courts ruled the state acted improperly. A dozen men, including Jeffs, were indicted by a Texas grand jury on charges ranging from sexual assault of a child and bigamy to failure to report child abuse and performing a marriage ceremony prohibited by law.