FLDS leader's lawyers seek tapes, witness in Texas raid

Lawyers for Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs want Arizona prosecutors to hand over any audio or videotapes of the beginning of the raid on the polygamous sect's ranch in Texas.

But Arizona prosecutors say they'll have to talk to Texas.

In court papers filed Monday in Mohave County Superior Court in Kingman, Ariz., Jeffs' defense attorneys Michael Piccarreta and Richard Wright say they want the tapes as part of their efforts to get any evidence seized from the YFZ Ranch tossed from his upcoming trial on sexual misconduct charges.

The existence of the tapes were disclosed by Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran when he was deposed by Jeffs' attorneys last month, court filings said, and Piccarreta wants to interview him again.

"These items may, in part, be inconsistent with the public positions taken by Texas law enforcement regarding the search," he wrote in a letter to Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith.

In their filing, Piccarreta and Wright said the tapes will "directly support the defendant's claim that the Texas law enforcement authorities acted with reckless disregard with respect to the information in the search warrant affidavit that led the magistrate to issue the search warrants."

Prosecutors agreed that Jeffs' lawyers should be entitled to the tapes but said they should not be asking Arizona for them.

"Since this material is not within the possession or control of the state of Arizona, the state cannot guarantee its production but will merely make its best efforts to receive these potential recordings," Smith replied.

Jeffs, 53, is serving a pair of five-to-life sentences for rape as an accomplice in Utah, convicted of performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. One of the Arizona cases involves the former child bride, Elissa Wall, and Jeffs' attorneys seek to question another witness in the case again. In a separate filing, Smith asked the judge to deny a motion to depose Rebecca Musser, Wall's older sister, saying she has "not failed to cooperate in granting a personal interview in this case."

Smith said Musser traveled from Boise to Salt Lake City to be interviewed in December, answering questions for 21/2 hours.

"The witness did not refuse to answer any questions concerning this case except for questions involving what happened in Texas, particularly with respect to the Texas search warrant which was executed on the YFZ Ranch," he wrote.