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Warren Jeffs, head of the breakaway polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), has been convicted in a St. George, Utah, court, of being an accomplice to rape, for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her first cousin. He faces other charges in Arizona and federal court. While this first case focused on the marriage of a young girl, many young boys' lives have been severely affected by the FLDS, and the Utah trial opened a window into their sad stories...
Clearly nervous when asked to spell his name, Shapley slowly said "M...E...R...R...I....L" punctuating each letter with a swallow. He had left school at eight years old to join his father's construction crew, he said, and works as a framer in booming southeastern Utah, building townhouses for retirees and outlet malls for tourists. Like most FLDS members, he was not accustomed to conversation with strangers...
...giving the practice a bad name. At the same time, prosecutors were looking for a way to address growing rumors of abuses within the sect, and they turned to newly strengthened child-abuse and sexual-predator laws. In 2005, Jeffs was indicted for sex crimes in Arizona and Utah and became a fugitive. A year later, he was on the FBI's 10-most-wanted list until his arrest in August 2006 in Las Vegas. Police found $53,000 in cash as well as cell phones, wigs and laptops. When he appeared at preliminary hearings, he seemed even more gaunt...
...charged as an accomplice. But in this case, the state has to prove that Jeffs coerced the victim into having sex without her consent. "It's basically an ill-fitting suit for the facts of the case," argues Daniel Medwed, a professor of criminal law at the University of Utah College of Law. "It can be draped over the facts, but it doesn't fit snugly. There's wiggle room for the defense...
...have actually known that sex between them was nonconsensual. "What did Warren Jeffs have to do with what was going on in her bedroom?" Isaacson asked in her opening statement. "Did he even know she was being forced to have sex against her will?" The age of consent in Utah was 14, the lowest in the country. You may think that's too young, Isaacson said to the jury, but that doesn't make it illegal. Isaacson called as witnesses men and women who testified that while marriages might be arranged, no one forced women to do anything. Joanna Keate...