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Judge orders Jeffs documents released

Deseret Morning News, USA
Aug. 14, 2006
Ben Winslow
deseretnews.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Monday August 14, 2006

A Salt Lake City judge is ordering the FBI to give up documents seized by authorities when they arrested the younger brother of fugitive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

Last week, Third District Judge Denise Lindberg granted a motion by lawyers for the United Effort Plan Trust‘s court-appointed special fiduciary. The motion compels the FBI to let the lawyers see church papers and documents they seized when they arrested Seth Jeffs.

Jeffs, 33, pleaded guilty in a Denver federal court to harboring a fugitive and was sentenced to three years probation. When he was arrested in October 2005 outside Pueblo, Colo., federal prosecutors said he had the papers, prepaid credit cards, phone cards, cell phones, $142,000 in cash and even a change jar with a label that read “Pennies for the Prophet.”

The court-appointed special fiduciary wants to know if any of those documents and church papers deal with missing property that belongs to the UEP.

“Anything we can get is more than we’ve got, and we can see what’s there,” said Jeffrey L. Shields, a lawyer for court-appointed special fiduciary Bruce Wisan.

The FBI’s Denver office would not comment on the motion.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado told the Deseret Morning News it is open to negotiating.

“The material remains in the custody of the FBI,” said U.S. Attorney’s spokesman Jeff Dorschner. “We continue to deal with all interested parties to resolve the issues being litigated.”