SALT LAKE CITY — Prosecutors filed a rape charge today against the former husband who was at the center of the trial of a polygamous-sect leader convicted of being an accomplice to the rape.
A day after Warren Jeffs‘ conviction by a jury, prosecutors filed the charge and an arrest warrant for Allen Glade Steed, 26, who is accused of having sex against his young bride’s will after an arranged marriage in 2001.
Steed testified at Jeffs’ trial that he did not force himself on the then-14-year-old bride, who is his cousin, and that she initiated their first sexual encounter.
Steed’s defense lawyer, Jim Bradshaw, didn’t immediately return a message today from The Associated Press.
The charge was based on a complaint filed by a sheriff’s investigator, who said the trial established that the pair had sex and that the woman, now 21, convinced jurors it was without her consent.
The investigator, Jake Schultz, said the arrest warrant was necessary to take Steed into custody because he lives out of state most of the time.