Judge to consider remanding Warren Jeffs charges

KINGMAN, Ariz. — An Arizona judge has set a July 11 date to consider whether to send four remaining charges against polygamist leader Warren Jeffs back to a grand jury for reconsideration.

The charges stem from the arranged marriages of two teenage girls and their older male relatives.

Defense attorney Mike Piccarreta is arguing that Jeffs was denied a fair, impartial and unbiased grand jury and that the prosecution presented false or misleading evidence to the grand jury. Jeffs originally faced 10 charges in Arizona.

In the past three months, six of those charges have been dropped — four at the request of the defense because Arizona's incest law doesn't apply to Jeffs' cases, and two at the request of the prosecution because the alleged victim refused to testify.