Arizona court declines Jeffs' appeal to have charges remanded

PHOENIX — The Arizona Court of Appeals has declined to consider an appeal by Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs, seeking to have the charges against him remanded back to a grand jury.

"It is ordered, in the exercise of its discretion, the court declines to accept jurisdiction of the special action," appeals court presiding Judge Michael J. Brown wrote in an order filed in Mohave County Superior Court on Oct. 1.

Jeffs' attorneys had appealed a Kingman, Ariz., judge's decision not to send the case back to a grand jury. They argued that Jeffs' due process rights were denied by a biased grand jury and that prosecutors had presented misleading information to jurors.

Jeffs, 52, is charged with sexual conduct with a minor, accusing him of performing underage marriages. The FLDS leader is serving a pair of five-years-to-life sentences after being convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice, for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. He has also been indicted by a grand jury in Texas on sexual assault and bigamy charges.

Jeffs' criminal defense attorneys are also challenging any plans by prosecutors to use evidence seized in the raid on the FLDS Church's YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, in his Arizona case.