Convicted polygamist may have broken phone rules

HOUSTON — Texas prison officials are investigating whether convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs violated his inmate telephone privileges with a couple of calls to a relative on Christmas Day that may have been broadcast to an audience.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says officials are trying to determine if Jeffs preached a sermon to his congregation over a speaker phone. That would be a violation of prison phone policy.

Clark says he doesn't know how prison officials became aware of a possible violation except to note that all calls made on through the agency's offender phone system are monitored and recorded.

Jeffs is serving life at a unit in East Texas. He was convicted in August of sexually assaulting two of his underage brides.