From Deseret News archives:
Jeffs seen in Arizona?
"I've heard from a number of different sources who said he's been here," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard told the Deseret Morning News Friday. "They said he's performed marriages, and (they) pointed out a mobile home they said was the wedding chapel."
Some living in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City said they have also heard that Jeffs has been there within the past 1 1/2 months. The Utah Attorney General's Office said it has heard from credible sources that Jeffs continues to exercise his religious authority.
"Certainly, Mr. Jeffs has the ability to communicate with people and invite them to meet him so he can continue to perform marriages," said Ken Wallentine, chief of law enforcement for the Utah Attorney General's Office.
The office has been conducting an organized crime investigation into Jeffs and the FLDS Church.
In Washington, D.C., to discuss high gas prices, Goddard plans to meet with FBI brass Monday to talk about the Jeffs case. In Friday's interview, Goddard criticized the FBI for not using state and local investigators enough in the manhunt for the polygamist leader.
"They know the territory. They know the players. They know what's credible and what's not," he said. "They're not being taken sufficient advantage of."
Goddard praised the cooperation between Utah and Arizona authorities, saying it has helped tighten the net to capture Jeffs. But the attorney general said more cooperation and better communication is needed between the FBI and local authorities.
"I've seen too many examples where the lack of coordination has been a benefit to Mr. Jeffs and his efforts to stay on the lam," he said.
The Utah Attorney General's Office said it has had "tremendous" communication with the FBI's Salt Lake City office.
"With Warren Jeffs in particular, I can tell you we've been informed, we've been consulted," Wallentine said Friday. "We've had leads, we've shared them and worked them together."
Wallentine noted that Arizona is under a different FBI field office. Calls to the FBI's Phoenix office were not returned Friday. The FBI's Salt Lake City office declined to comment on Goddard's remarks.
Others say it appears the FBI has taken a heightened interest in Jeffs since the polygamist leader was added to the agency's Ten Most Wanted list last month. FBI Director Robert Mueller was in Salt Lake City Wednesday and was briefed on the manhunt efforts.
