Concluding that the child bride referred to in court documents as Jane Doe No. 4, “expressed her disdain, reluctance, opposition and total dislike of sexual relations,” Utah District Judge James Shumate ruled Dec. 14 that Warren Jeffs, the “prophet” leader of the polygamist Mormon breakaway sect the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will stand trial on charges of rape-as-accomplice. Jeffs, 51, is accused of abetting rape by arranging and presiding over the 2001 “spiritual marriage” of Doe, then 14, and her 19-year-old first cousin.
Under Utah law (which, in part, defines rape as sex between a minor – 14 to 18 years old – and someone more than three years older), a third party can be charged with rape-as-accomplice if they solicit, entice, or coerce the action. According to Utah prosecutors, Jeffs did exactly that when he commanded Doe to marry her cousin and to submit to him “mind, body and soul.” Indeed, last month Doe testified that she appealed to Jeffs, his father Rulon (at the time still the head of the FLDS, although Warren had already taken over most day-to-day prophet duties), and other church leaders to cancel the marriage – not a legally-binding union, but nonetheless formal under church doctrine – but said they refused her pleas. (FLDS doctrine posits that men must have at least three wives to make it to heaven, and that women must submit to such polygamist arrangements if they’re to have any hope of being exalted into the “celestial kingdom.” For more on the FLDS, see “Meet the New Neighbors,” July 29, 2005.)
Jeffs was on the lam for more than a year, dodging the Utah rape charge, lesser state charges in Arizona also related to his arranging polygamist unions, and a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Jeffs was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list in May and eventually had a $100K booty attached to his mug. Before his arrest in August by a Nevada state trooper, prophet Jeffs hadn’t been spotted publicly since January 2004, when he was seen at the FLDS’ gated compound in Eldorado, consecrating the site where the group’s first-ever temple now stands.
After two days in court – spread over two months – for a hearing on whether the state has enough evidence to try Jeffs for the rape charge, Shumate ruled Thursday that the trial will go forward, starting April 27. Jeffs immediately entered a plea of not guilty; his lawyer, Wally Bugden, told reporters that the charges against Jeffs amount to religious persecution. “Shame on the state,” he told Salt Lake City’s Deseret News. “There was no rape in this case. Mr. Jeffs is not on trial for practicing polygamy. The religious counsel he gave to this couple is no different from what religious leaders of other religions tell their faithful every day across America.”
This article appears in December 15 • 2006.