Posts
The first trial of eight polygamists accused of sexual relations with underage girls has ended in a conviction. The eight are all members of a Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) group near Colorado City, Arizona, headed by Warren Jeffs.
An eight-member jury unanimously agreed on Friday that Kelly Fischer is guilty on both charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. Fischer is the first convicted of eight Colorado City men charged with similar crimes.
Following closing arguments by both attorneys Friday morning, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn sent the jury to deliberate at 1:05 p.m. The jury received 13 pages of instructions and copies of evidence.
Shortly before 2:30 p.m., jury members concluded that Fischer was guilty on both charges. Asked by Conn to reconfirm their decisions in the courtroom one by one, all of them said "yes" to the decision they had just made.
A unanimous verdict took less than ninety minutes, even though the DA thought this one of the weakest of the eight cases.
Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said the Fischer case was one of the weakest cases of eight similar cases he will try in court, because the victim did not testify at the trial.
Smith said several of the other codefendants may be easier cases to try because the victims will come forth to testify in those trials.
It took over three years to bring the cases to trial because all the authorities had to go on at the outset was a bunch of birth certificates showing that underage girls were giving birth to babies fathered by much older men. But then Warren Jeffs started ejecting men he deemed unworthy, thus creating enemies willing to testify against him and his friends.
Some say more than 200 men have been exiled. Of those, only a handful have spoken out about the restrictive authority Jeffs wields over his followers.
Among them: Richard Holm and Isaac Wyler, whose testimony proved key last week in winning a conviction against Kelly Fischer on two sex-crimes charges related to his "spiritual" polygamous marriage to a 16-year-old girl.
In the end, however, the jury found the birth certificates conclusive.
Debbie Henderson, foreman of the jury, . . . said it was not really hard for them to find the defendant guilty. She said birth certificates offered by the state on Fischer, victim Jenny Steed and her child made it clear to the jury that Fischer had had sex with her before she was 18 years old.
This trial is part of campaigns by Arizona and Utah against the FLDS.
Arizona has taken the lead in pursuing criminal charges against members of the sect, while Utah has pursued civil action that might end up dismantling the faith's communal property trust.
The successful prosecution might provide a blueprint for pursuing the same charges against the other men - as well as Jeffs, if he is ever apprehended. Jeffs also faces a rape-as-an-accomplice charge in Utah over the arrangement of an underage marriage.
The 50-year-old leader, whom his followers consider a prophet, has not been seen publicly in more than 18 months and is on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list.
None of the three news stories quoted here mentions that Mr Jeffs is also a leader of the FLDS colony in Bountiful, BC. Canadian police have failed to move against the Bountiful group, apparently because they fear that Canada’s laws against polygamy could be overturned on constitutional grounds. So, the safest place for Mr Jeffs to hide right now is Canada.
Now that Arizona FLDS members have been successfully prosecuted for sex with minors—and that on the basis of a simple examination of birth records—why don’t BC authorities explore the same strategy to protect young girls from abusive relationships? Or do BC law enforcement agencies not care as much as their American counterparts about exploited underage girls?
Previous related posts:
