Jeffs sent to hospital but stays only briefly

Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs was briefly hospitalized last week for an undisclosed medical condition, sheriff's deputies confirmed.

Jeffs was taken to Kingman Regional Medical Center for a few hours on Thursday after jail medical staff recommended he be taken to the hospital. Authorities refused to release any more details.

"I cannot comment on the medical situation," Mohave County sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter told the Deseret News on Monday. "Obviously, Kingman Regional determined him to be OK, and he was returned to our jail."

Jeffs, 52, was hospitalized in Las Vegas for a day in July after another medical scare. Sheriff's officials said at the time that jail staff had observed him being lethargic, shaking, feverish and in a weakened state of health.

The FLDS leader has been under 24-hour observation, dubbed a "medical watch," at the Mohave County Jail since he arrived there. While in Utah and awaiting trial, court papers said Jeffs was hospitalized after attempting suicide in the Purgatory Jail. He also developed health problems from a self-imposed fast and sores on his knees from spending so much time praying.

Jeffs, who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, was convicted and sentenced to a pair of five-years-to-life sentences in Utah for rape as an accomplice for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. In Arizona, Jeffs is awaiting trial on sexual conduct with a minor as an accomplice charges. He was recently indicted in Texas on sexual assault and bigamy charges.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com

Contributing: Suzanne Adams, Kingman Daily Miner