Six members of the polygamous sect led by Warren S. Jeffs have been released from the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence, Ariz., where they were being held on contempt of court charges.
The six men were jailed after they refused to testify before a federal grand jury investigating Jeffs. Several had been in the detention facility since April.
The U.S. Marshals Office confirmed the men were released Tuesday. Jeffs’ arrest Monday evening just outside of Las Vegas may have made it unnecessary to continue holding the men.
While grand jury proceedings are secret, it is believed the jury had called in witnesses who might have information about Jeffs’ whereabouts. That puzzle has now been solved.
The men released in Arizona are: Mica S. Barlow; James R. Allred; Leroy B. Timpson; Benjamin Jeffs Nielsen; Leroy Jeffs; and Samuel K. Allred. Leroy Jeffs is Warren’s brother, and Benjamin Jeffs Nielsen is his nephew. The other men held various positions in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., which are home to some 6,000 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Barlow is a Colorado City police officer while James Allred served as a postal clerk in the twin towns. Allred is associated with Aspen Management Investment and R& W Excavating, and Timpson owns a kitchen and bath remodeling company. Nielsen had been living in an FLDS outpost in Mancos, Colo.