Warren Jeffs

Warren Steed Jeffs
File:Jeffs mugshot.jpg
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive
Description
Born	(1955-12-03)December 3, 1955
Status
Added	May 6, 2006
Caught	August 28, 2006
Number	482
Captured

Warren Steed Jeffs (born December 3, 1955 in San Francisco, California) is the alleged leader of a controversial polygamist Mormon sect frequently denounced by the mainstream LDS church, known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Jeffs' position in this organization is reportedly that of an absolute ruler, and his followers refer to him as a prophet and a direct blood descendent of both Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith. He gained international notoriety in May, 2006 when he was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on state charges related to his allegedly arranging extralegal "marriages" between his adult male followers and girls who were under the age of majority, the age of consent and/or the legally recognizable marriageable age. Jeffs is believed to have had sexual relations with a minor; in May and July of 2007 the State of Arizona charged him with eight additional counts -- including sexual conduct with minor and incest -- in two separate cases.

Jeffs was arrested near Las Vegas, Nevada on August 28, 2006 after a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper pulled over his burgundy Cadillac Escalade, in which he was a passenger. Jeffs was later extradited to Utah and remains in custody as of April 29, 2007, awaiting prosecution.

Role as leader of the FLDS

Warren Jeffs' official title in the FLDS Church is "President and Prophet, Seer and Revelator." He also holds the title of "President of the Priesthood." Due to his prior position as "First Counselor," Jeffs succeeded to the other positions after the death of his father Rulon Jeffs, who died on September 8, 2002. One of Jeffs' statements after his father's death was directed at high-ranking officials in the church: "I won't say much, but I will say this - hands off my father's wives." Then addressing the recent widows, he said, "You women will live as if father is still alive and in the next room." Within a week, Warren had married all but two of his father's several dozen wives. After this, he continued to marry more women, many of which were close relatives believing these incenstuous relationships are preserving the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith, both of whom he claims descent from.

Warren Jeffs has instituted rules that segregate and isolate FLDS members from news and society. Toward that end, and at Jeffs' direction, a group of FLDS men called the "Sons of Helaman" were at one point assigned to check that homes contained only "approved" literature.

Jeffs, the sole individual in the church who can perform marriages, is responsible for assigning wives to husbands. Jeffs also has the ability to punish men by reassigning their wives, children, and homes to another man. Moreover, the FLDS Church owns essentially all of the homes and real estate in the areas where its members reside, and members who do not abide by the rules can be removed from their homes and cast out of the society.

In 2000, the Colorado City Unified School District had more than 1,200 students enrolled. When Jeffs ordered FLDS members to remove their children from public schools, the enrollment decreased to around 250. He did not order the FLDS members who made up the majority of the school district's administrators to quit their positions.

Until courts in Utah recently intervened, Jeffs controlled almost all of the land in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, which was part of a church trust, the United Effort Plan (UEP). The land has been estimated to be worth over $100 million. Currently, all UEP assets are in the custody of the Utah court system pending further litigation. In January 2004, Jeffs expelled a group of 20 men from Colorado City, including the mayor, and reassigned their wives and children to other men. Jeffs teaches that a man has to have at least three wives in order to get into heaven and the more wives man has, the closer he is to heaven. Former church members claim that Jeffs himself has seventy wives (Egan, 2005).

Before his 2006 arrest, Jeffs had last been sighted on January 1, 2005 near Eldorado, Texas, at the dedication ceremony of the foundation of a large and elaborate new FLDS temple on an area of land called the YFZ Ranch. The media have reported that Jeffs' church has designated or will soon designate the area as its new home base.

On June 10, 2006, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard told the Deseret Morning News that he had heard from several sources that Jeffs had returned to Arizona, and had performed marriage ceremonies in a mobile home that was being used as a wedding chapel.

On March 27, 2007, the Deseret Morning News reported that Jeffs had renounced his role as prophet of the FLDS church in a conversation with his brother Nephi. Nephi quoted him as saying he was "the greatest of all sinners" and that God never called him to be Prophet. This statement was reportedly given to his brother Nephi and Jeffs and his defense team had no comment on it. Some suggest it is a lie from his brother Nephi, trying to assume his brother's role, while other's say he must step down as prophet so a new man may perform marriages and continue adding wives to the men of the community. An unnamed source said that he retracted this statement. However the veracity of that source was called into question when Jeffs presented a handwritten note to the judge at the end of trial on March 27 saying that he was not a prophet of the FLDS church.

Alleged Racist Opinions

In 2005, the Intelligence Report published the following statements said by Jeffs:

• "The black race is the people through which the devil has always been able to bring evil unto the earth."
• "[Cain was] cursed with a black skin and he is the father of the Negro people. He has great power, can appear and disappear. He is used by the devil, as a mortal man, to do great evils."
• "Today you can see a black man with a white woman, et cetera. A great evil has happened on this land because the devil knows that if all the people have Negro blood, there will be nobody worthy to have the priesthood."
• "If you marry a person who has connections with a Negro, you would become cursed."

Sex crime allegations and FBI's Most Wanted

Warren Jeffs from his "Wanted" poster on the FBI's Web site.

In July 2004, Warren Jeffs' nephew, Brent Jeffs, filed a lawsuit against him alleging that in the late 1980s his uncle sodomized him in the Salt Lake Valley compound then owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Brent Jeffs said he was 5 or 6 years old at the time, and that Warren Jeffs' brothers, also named in the lawsuit, watched and participated in the abuse. Two of Warren Jeffs' other nephews also made similar abuse claims against him. One of the alleged victims, Clayne Jeffs, committed suicide with a firearm after admitting that Warren Jeffs had sexually assaulted him as a child.

In June 2005, Warren Jeffs was charged with sexual assault on a minor and with conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor for allegedly arranging, in 2002, a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man who was already married. He faces those charges in Mohave County, Arizona. In July 2005, the Arizona Attorney General's office distributed wanted posters offering $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Jeffs.

In late 2005, Jeffs was put on the FBI's most wanted fugitive list, offering $60,000 for information leading to his arrest. Shortly after being placed on the FBI list, Warren Jeffs was featured on the television program "America's Most Wanted".

Around this time, Warren Jeffs' brother, Seth Steed Jeffs, was arrested under suspicion of harboring a fugitive. During a routine traffic stop on October 28, 2005, in Pueblo County, Colorado, police found nearly $142,000 in cash, about $7,000 worth of prepaid debit cards, and Warren Jeffs' personal records. During Seth Jeffs' court case, FBI agent Andrew Stearns testified Jeffs had told him that he didn't know where his older brother was and that he would not reveal his whereabouts if he did. He was convicted of harboring a fugitive on May 1, 2006. On July 14, 2006, he was sentenced to three years' probation and a $2500 fine.

On April 5, 2006, the state of Utah issued an arrest warrant for Jeffs on felony charges of accomplice rape of a teenage girl between 14 and 18 years old.

On May 6, 2006, the FBI placed Jeffs on its Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He was the the 482nd fugitive listed on that list. In addition, the bounty on his head was raised to $100,000, and the public was warned that "Jeffs may travel with a number of loyal and armed bodyguards."

The updated posters warned that Jeffs had ties to Utah, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, British Columbia, and Quintana Roo, Mexico. There is also information that he has ties to some rural farms run by some of his followers near Pioche, Nevada, as well as construction companies in Mesquite, Nevada.

On May 27, 2006, Bruce Wisan, the court-appointed accountant in charge of the FLDS' trust fund, filed civil suits against Jeffs. Wisan claimed that Jeffs is responsible for "fleecing trust assets." Along with church leaders, former trustees Truman Barlow, Leroy Jeffs, James Zitting, and William Jessop were also named as defendants. "We feel that they’ve taken things from the trust," Wisan said. "Their actions have caused harm to the trust."

On June 8, 2006, Jeffs returned to Colorado City to perform more "child bride" marriages. Nearby citizens pointed out a mobile home where the weddings had allegedly taken place.

August 2006 arrest

On August 28, 2006, around 9 p.m. Pacific time, Warren Jeffs was pulled over on Interstate 15 in Clark County, Nevada, by Nevada Highway Trooper Eddie Dutchover because Jeffs' red 2007 Cadillac Escalade's temporary license plates were not visible. One of Jeffs' wives, Naomi Jeffs, and his brother, Issac Steve Jeffs, were with him, and Jeffs had four computers, 16 cell phones, disguises (including three wigs and twelve pairs of sunglasses), and more than $55,000 in cash..

In a Nevada court hearing on August 31, 2006, Jeffs waived extradition and agreed to return to Utah to face two first-degree felony charges of accomplice rape. Each charge carries an indeterminate penalty of five years to life in prison. Arizona prosecutors are next in line to try Jeffs. Jeffs is currently in the Washington County, Utah jail pending an April 23, 2007 trial on two counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in arranging a 2001 marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

Jeffs is believed to be leading his group from jail, and a Utah state board has expressed dissatisfaction in dealing with Hilldale police, believing that many have ties to Jeffs, and as such, do not cooperate. In May and July of 2007 he was indicted in Arizona on eight counts, including sexual conduct with a minor and incest.

Media publicity and research

In 2003, Under the Banner of Heaven was published, a book written by Jon Krakauer, documenting the history of both the LDS church and its spinoff sects, focusing largely on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The book describes illegal activity in the (Fundamentalist) Church, mainly polygamy and statutory rape.

The documentary film "Banking on Heaven" was released in 2006. It documents Warren Jeffs and the FLDS in Colorado City, Arizona.

On July 19, 2006, Britain's Channel 4 ran the documentary "The Man with 80 Wives". The program featured presenter Sanjiv Bhattacharya searching for Warren Jeffs, unsuccessfully, in Colorado, Utah and Texas. Filmed before Jeffs was put on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, the documentary features interviews with one of Jeffs' brothers as well as with several excommunicated FLDS members.

In Canada on October 23, 2006, Global ran an hour-long documentary on "Global Currents," which followed the lives of excommunicated members and featured their hardships.

On January 23, 2007, CTV aired a made-for-TV movie titled "In God's Country" which tells a fictionalized tale that alludes to FLDS and their behaviors and beliefs.

In 2007, the CBS Television show Without a Trace ran an episode featuring a cult leader who claimed to be a descendant of Jesus Christ. This character was wanted for abuse of a minor, polygamy, and performing child marriages. Though the end of the episode does not mirror the manner in which Warren Jeffs was captured, the character in the show was clearly based on Jeffs.

References

• Warren Jeffs waives extradition, will face rape charges in Utah CourtTVnews.com, Las Vegas, August 31, 2006.
• Banking on Heaven - a film exploring Warren Jeff's polygamist sect.
• Tempest in Texas By Susy Buchanan on Southern Poverty Law Center
• Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) by Apologetics Index
• "The Lost Boys" in Details by Jeff Gordinier, November 2004.
• "Woman sues polygamist sect" by CNN on December.
• Timothy Egan: "Polygamous Community Defies State Crackdown", The New York Times, October
• Quotations of the Prophet Warren Jeffs in The Austin Chronicle by Jordan Smith on July.
• Sex claims hit US polygamy sect by BBC News on June
• Press Release - Warren Jeffs Indicted – Shurtleff Applauds Mohave County's Investigation by the office of the Attorney General of the State of Utah, June.
• Tapes Reveal Some of Polygamist Leader's Teachings by KSL Television & Radio, Salt Lake City UT by John Hollenhorst on April 5 2005

• Leader of FLDS named in abuse suit by Pamela Manson in The Salt Lake Tribune on July.
• Suit accuses polygamist of sex abuse, cover-up in The Arizona Republic by Joseph A. Reaves on July.
• The Man Behind the Curtain in Phoenix New Times By John Dougherty on January.
• Audio clips reveal FLDS leader's racist teachings
• America's Most Wanted Television Show

External links

• Prophet flies from Sin City to Purgatory CNN – Law center.
• Full coverage of the Jeffs trial from Court TV
• NPR - Article on Rulon & Warren Jeffs, including pictures.
• CBC's documentary on Warren Jeffs and the FLDS (available in streaming format through the site).
• Channel 4 (UK) Documentary, detailing the investigations of an English journalist.
• CNN – Anderson Cooper 360 blog report on Warren Jeffs.
• CNN – Anderson Cooper 360 transcript aired on May.
• Utah's Felony Charges of Accomplice Rape – from FindLaw
• El Dorado Success Newspaper article featuring audio clips from Warren Jeffs.
• Rick Ross Institute Section
• Most Recent Pictures of FLDS Compound featuring updated pictures of the FLDS compound near Eldorado, Texas
• Polygamist leader ordered to stand trial CNN
• Reuters arrest article by Cathy Scott