Jeffs hires 2 attorneys

ST. GEORGE — Captured polygamist leader Warren Jeffs now has a pair of high-profile criminal defense lawyers and a postponed preliminary hearing.

During a brief court appearance here, Judge James Shumate announced that Salt Lake City-based attorneys Wally Bugden and Tara Isaacson had been hired to represent Jeffs. Isaacson notified the judge just 15 minutes before the hearing.

"Is that your understanding, sir?" Shumate asked Jeffs.

"Yes. She and Wally Bugden both," he replied.

The Fundamentalist LDS Church leader appeared in court via closed circuit TV, sitting alone at a table inside a hearing room at the Purgatory Jail, about 17 miles from the 5th District courthouse.

The new defense attorneys requested that a Sept. 19 preliminary hearing be postponed.

Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap said the continuance was by "mutual agreement." Shumate asked Jeffs if he agreed to the delay.

"Yes, if that gives the attorneys enough time," Jeffs said.

Shumate scheduled a status hearing for Sept. 27, where he will address bail and set a new date for a preliminary hearing. Jeffs will be required to attend the hearing, "live, here in the courtroom, not by video," the judge said.

Jeffs remains in the Purgatory Jail, where he is kept in a cell 23 hours a day. "He's nice and quiet," said Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith.

Jeffs is allowed to make phone calls and receive visitors. The Washington County Sheriff's Office on Monday denied a request by the Deseret Morning News under the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) to view the jail's visitor logs. The FLDS Church leader has met with Wright and another lawyer since being booked into the Purgatory Jail on Sept. 5.

Bugden and Isaacson's law firm said the pair would have no comment Monday.

"I just can't comment to you guys right now," Bugden told the Deseret Morning News when contacted last week about him representing Jeffs.

Bugden and Isaacson have represented numerous high-profile clients including Dr. Robert Weitzel, acquitted of killing five elderly patients with morphine overdoses; former Utah Jazz basketball player Olden Polynice, accused of impersonating a police officer; former "Brady Bunch" child star Michael Paul Lookinland, accused of DUI; and ex-Salt Lake County auditor Craig Sorenson, convicted in the so-called "guzzlegate" scandal.