SAN ANGELO, Texas — The third day of the Warren Jeffs trial proved to be a short one — the court convened at 1 p.m. and recessed in less than three and a half hours.
The court heard suppression of evidence arguments put forward by the defense. Some exhibits for the hearing, which began at 1 p.m. Wednesday before 51st District Judge Barbara Walther in the Tom Green Courthouse, had been sealed pending jury selection.
A jury was chosen but not sworn in Tuesday evening, the second day of the trial. Jeffs, leader of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, faces first- and second-degree felony charges related to allegations that he participated in multiple marriages with underage girls while he was in Texas in 2005 and 2006.
(snip)
Walther has previously denied motions to suppress evidence in FLDS member criminal trials. Evidence from a 2009 suppression hearing, which lasted several days, has been offered in the present hearing.
(Excerpts--entire story at this this link)
AUSTIN — A convicted member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints continues to serve prison time while an appeals court weighs his challenge to a search warrant crucial to the case.
When the Third Court of Appeals in Austin rules on the legal arguments by Michael Emack it could impact the case of Warren Jeffs and other FLDS members charged in Schleicher County, legal experts say.
But a decision may not come soon.
"It's not unusual for a court to scratch its head for six months, 10 months," said Richard Segura, an Austin criminal defense attorney and lecturer in the University of Texas School of Law criminal defense clinic. "Every case is different."
(Snip)
Emack's attorneys argued the initial call that led to a Child Protective Services investigation was a hoax and that the ensuing "illegal search and interrogation of the young girls" tainted a later search warrant.
"Based upon a mentally unstable tipster's false calls to a shelter hotline, Texas Law Enforcement and Child Protective Services launched a raid on the YFZ Ranch community, in what was described as one of the 'most massive' law enforcement undertakings of its kind in the history of the United States," the defense attorneys wrote in a legal brief.
(Excerpt--entire story here)