Posted on 06/24/2008 9:41:49 AM PDT by Alice in Wonderland
SAN ANGELO, Texas — A court-appointed attorney for a 16-year-old FLDS girl caught up in a grand jury investigation will go to court today under armed guard. Natalie Malonis confirmed to the Deseret News she has received death threats since she sought a restraining order against a high-profile member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church to prevent him from contacting her client.
"I've been getting death threats and I am being provided a security detail," she said this morning. "That was not even at my request. Law enforcement recognized the need for it."
Malonis said she did not know who has made the threats. She represents four FLDS members — including Pamela Jeffs, for whom she was praised by FLDS supporters when she managed to secure additional rights in court for the woman once declared by Texas authorities to be a minor.
Malonis' 16-year-old client, meanwhile, has fired off several e-mails asking her to step aside.
In e-mails sent to the Deseret News and posted on pro-FLDS Web sites, Teresa Jeffs accuses her court-appointed lawyer of not acting in her best interest.
"My attorney is going against my wishes. Maybe you need a restraining order that you can absolutely have nothing to do with me and you have to stay 1,000 feet away from me! What do you think of that?" she wrote in an e-mail to Malonis.
Jeffs has been subpoenaed to testify Wednesday before a grand jury investigating crimes involving FLDS members. The Texas Attorney General's Office said it could not find Jeffs to subpoena her, and Malonis went to court seeking a restraining order against FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop. In court papers, she accused Jessop of coercing the girl to avoid the subpoena and interfering with her relationship with her client. Judge Barbara Walther signed a temporary restraining order that technically prevents Jeffs' mother from allowing her daughter to have any contact with Jessop. A hearing on a more permanent restraining order will be held this afternoon.
On Monday, Malonis said she spoke with the attorney for Jeffs' mother, but no agreement could be reached.
"I hoped we could, but no ... ," she told the Deseret News.
Malonis said she is prepared to call witnesses and present evidence to suggest that the girl is being intimidated and pressured by FLDS members. The judge is not expected to consider Jeffs' request for a new lawyer.
Rod Parker, a Salt Lake attorney acting as a spokesman for the FLDS, believes Malonis is not following her court-appointed duties. Because Malonis is Teresa Jeffs' attorney ad litem and not her guardian ad litem, her job is to be an advocate for the child, he said.
"I think that she's really out on a limb in doing what she's doing and injuring her own client in a very public way," Parker said. "This is just a very unhealthy and dysfunctional attorney-client relationship. The court ought to grant Teresa's wish and give her another lawyer. This system of justice does not work appropriately when attorneys and their clients are at odds with each other." When the Texas Supreme Court ordered the hundreds of children taken in the April 3 raid to be returned to their parents, Jeffs was exempted.
Malonis said in court papers it was because the girl was an identified sex-abuse victim who had been "spiritually united" to an older man at 15. A special order was put in place for Jeffs, preventing her from contacting her father — FLDS leader Warren Jeffs — and a man named Raymond Jessop, who was not further identified.
The Deseret News normally does not name sex-abuse victims, but the girl has gone public in media interviews and in an e-mail forwarded to the Deseret News. She insists she is not a victim. In her e-mail, the girl said neither Willie Jessop nor Raymond Jessop has ever threatened her.
"That have treated (sic) so very kindly," she wrote.
Jeffs wrote in the communication with Malonis that she did not want the grand jury subpoena, but acknowledged being served.
"Well, they want me to appear before a grand jury. I do not have confidence in you and how can I get you to help me in such a situation that I am in when it feels like to me all you are doing is going against me," she wrote. "So, that is the reason that I am asking you to step aside and let me do what I need to do to and get me a different attorney."
I lay 10 -1 fifteen minutes before bias raises its head and the thread is pulled.
Maybe he was thinking along the lines of how the Catholic church "squashed" those upstart Protestants.
There is a certain level of sympathy or a kind of understanding that a lot of people in Utah have with these people. Lots of their ancestors were polygamists too.
I think now that the eyes of the Utah AG have been opened. Thats a good sign. In fact Willie Jessop was calling the AG of Utah ‘Boggs’, after the former gov. of Missouri. LOL Willie was mad!
It's pretty obvious that Malonis is speaking to the press against her client's wishes. Her client is in no legal danger. She is 16. All that she can be is a victim. What happened to attorney client privilege?
Aren't you just guessing?
In fact it was the girl who called the AP and talked to them.
Malonis told the press she will not fight with her client via the media.
Anyone with a brain can see that the girl is being pressured to do this stuff, most likely from her mom and Jessop.
Good point. If they are ashamed, why defend them?
Ask Nancy Grace because she is regular there spouting off about her clients at flds.
The two churches are identical except that the LDS are more ASHAMED of Joesph Smith and Brigham Young than the FLDS, and the LDS have spent much effort to whitewash their stories over the decades.
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And people wonder why many have strong reservations, or even dislike, for the Mormon faith. It does have its extreme and cultish features.
No one has whined to the mods. We spotted this on our own. Everyone should be QUITE clear as to how to refer to FLDS by now, but a few don't seem to be able to get the message and continue to try and play games to associate them with the larger LDS church.
Maybe that's what he/she is hoping for?
The article quotes Malonis. How can they quote her if she didn't say anything?
I saw the attorney once on the Nancy Grace show. She had about one minute of airtime. Do you have additional information that she has become a ‘regular’ on the show?
Second yank of your post. You know the reason why. No one has mashed abuse. This is FR mod policy. And you DON’T want to find out how many strikes you get in this league.
Well, gee whiz.
This is a thread about a religious group. Why shouldn’t talk about religion be allowed?
What did you say and why did they pull it?
nevermind.
I don't watch Nancy Grace
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