Shurtleff wants access to FBI's Jeffs evidence

ST. GEORGE — Papers, ledgers and computers seized by the FBI when it arrested Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs could help the Utah attorney general's organized crime investigation into the polygamist leader and his church.

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he wants to see the seized evidence to determine if it would aid his investigation into Jeffs, the FLDS Church and its financial arm, the United Effort Plan Trust.

"Obviously, we think the laptops may have some information on them," Shurtleff said. "It could have information about the UEP and the financial empire. Also, information about types of crimes that might have been committed."

Jeffs, 50, was an FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive until he was captured in a traffic stop outside Las Vegas in August. Inside the Cadillac Escalade he was riding in, the FBI said it seized cash, wigs, papers, ledgers, cell phones, a GPS, computers and other items believed to have kept Jeffs on the run.

That evidence is now locked up in a federal court fight in Las Vegas. One of Jeffs' lawyers is asking a judge to force the FBI to return the papers, claiming they constitute "privileged communications" between the FLDS leader and his followers.

"The administrative impound impinges on the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion insomuch as the government took possession of religious documents which are deemed confidential and sacred by the FLDS," lawyer Richard Wright said in a motion filed in federal court.

"We don't want to look at personal church records about people and their so-called 'sins,"' Shurtleff said. "He obviously had those laptops with him for a purpose. Everything else he had with him was to keep him hidden and keep him away from the law, and that stuff's got to be relevant to the charges against him and we need a chance to look at it."

Shurtleff said his office is communicating with the Washington County attorney about filing a motion in federal court to intervene in the evidence battle.

The Utah Attorney General's Office would join a growing list of people who want to see what the FBI has in its possession. The court-appointed special fiduciary of the UEP Trust is also asking to take a look at the evidence.

"In this case, we've got so little that everything is precious," fiduciary lawyer Jeffrey L. Shields said.