Salt Lake City, USA - A man whose marriage was used to criminally prosecute polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs is asking a Utah judge to dismiss his own case, saying it was filed too late to be valid.
In a new motion filed in 5th District Court in St. George, attorneys for Allen G. Steed argue his prosecution on a rape charge is barred by the statute of limitations. The new filing comes about a month after a settlement hearing was canceled.
Steed, 28, was charged with rape in 2007 days after testifying as a defense witness in Jeffs' trial on rape as an accomplice.
Steed was 19 when Jeffs, then a counselor in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, presided over his arranged marriage in 2001 to Elissa Wall, then 14. Wall testified she objected to the marriage before it took place and later asked Jeffs to release her from it but was rebuffed. That resulted in nonconsensual sexual intercourse with Steed, she said during Jeffs' trial.
Steed testified the intimacy was consensual.
Jeffs was convicted on two counts of rape on Sept. 25, 2007, and is serving two consecutive five-to-life sentences.
A day after the jury found Jeffs guilty, Steed was charged with one count of rape for an offense that occurred "between April 14, 2001 and September 30, 2004."
In the filing, defense attorney Jim Bradshaw argues that Utah law in force in 2001 required a rape charge to be brought within four years of the offense. The Utah Legislature amended the law in 2005 to expand the prosecution window to eight years as long as an initial report is made to police within four years of the offense.
The statute of limitations can not be extended by using an unspecified, multi-year period for the offense, the motion states. "Due process requires that Mr. Steed be provided specific information in regards to which sexual relations the state is claiming was nonconsensual," Bradshaw argues.
Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap was still reviewing the filing, according to The Associated Press.
Wall first reported a rape to the Washington County Sheriff's Office on Jan. 14, 2006, after negotiating a "confidentiality and cooperation agreement" with police. The interview took place three weeks after she filed a civil lawsuit based on her objections to the marriage against Jeffs, the FLDS church and the United Effort Plan Trust.
Bradshaw said in his motion that the rape allegation also fails the law enforcement reporting requirement -- and cites Wall's book "Stolen Innocence" to bolster that argument.
The motion recounts a "chance meeting" in 2005 at a restaurant between Lamont Barlow, Wall's second husband, and a Mohave County investigator in which the allegation of sexual abuse was mentioned. During that discussion, Barlow "made clear" that Wall would refuse to speak to the investigator.
"This information was not concrete enough to require that [the investigator] pass this information along to the Washington County Sheriff's Office as would be required by Utah law," the motion states. Eight months later, Wall's sister contacted Washington County Sheriff's Office and suggested investigators contact a civil attorney in Washington, D.C., who was working on the civil case involving the allegations of abuse.
"Prompt reporting and the legal duty to report allegations of abuse were calculatingly sacrificed to the greater goal of maximizing the likelihood of financial recovery," the motion states. "Ms. Wall must now live with the results of these arrangements."