Lawyers want Jeffs case tossed or moved out of St. George

Lawyers for Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs want to have the case against him dismissed — just a month away from the polygamist's trial on charges of rape as an accomplice.

If that fails, they want it moved to Salt Lake County.

In court papers obtained by the Deseret Morning News, Jeffs' defense team asks a judge to declare the rape as an accomplice charge "unconstitutionally vague," asks to have his bindover for trial quashed, and asks for the trial to be moved out of St. George.

The motions were filed this morning in St. George's 5th District Court.

Jeffs, 51, is facing charges of rape as an accomplice in St. George's 5th District Court. He is accused of performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. Jeffs is scheduled to go on trial beginning April 23.

Claiming that his religious freedoms are being targeted, defense attorney Walter Bugden, Jr. asks the judge to declare that Utah's law on rape as an accomplice be declared "unconstitutionally vague."

"The Defendant's use of common religious doctrine, during the marriage ceremony and while he counseled the alleged victim, is being used as the only evidence that the Defendant enticed the alleged victim to consent to sexual intercourse with the principal," he wrote.

Bugden said prosecutors use three statements to claim enticement. First, that Jeffs told the alleged victim to "go forth and replenish the earth and multiply" after she was married.

When the victim came back to Jeffs with problems in her marriage, Jeffs told her to "give herself mind, body and soul, to her husband." Finally, Jeffs is also accused of telling the girl to be obedient and submissive to her husband.

In asking for the bindover order to be quashed, Jeffs' attorneys argue that his position as leader of the FLDS Church "does not provide sufficient probable cause to infer that the defendant was on notice that the alleged victim expressed lack of consent to sexual intercourse through words and conduct."

Finally, in an effort to have any trial moved out of St. George, defense attorneys commissioned a poll through Deseret Morning News pollster Dan Jones. The poll found that in Washington County, 52 percent of those surveyed believe Jeffs is "definitely guilty" and 23 percent believe he is "probably guilty."

Jones' affidavit filed with the motion said that 94 percent of Washington County residents surveyed obtained their knowledge of the Jeffs case from the news media, with 78 percent believing its accuracy.

Jones conducted the poll Feb. 5-14, surveying 628 people in Salt Lake, Washington and Iron counties. It has a margin of error of 6.9 percent.

Bugden said in his motion that "a fair and impartial jury cannot be seated." He asked that it be moved to Salt Lake County.

Jeffs' attorneys did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment this afternoon. Jeffs remains in the Purgatory Jail where he is being held without bail.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com