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."
LOL, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction . . .
This is the level we've sunk to? Every empty parenthesis of certain posters is thoroughly sifted by the AM while comments like these in #343 receive a thorough yawn?
From OMM: Although baptists are not known for their high levels of intelligence or morality. [#343]
That was during the Warren Jeffs trial. As I stated earlier on this thread, a little intimidation goes a long way. I read that it was observed during the trial that the FLDS men would just have to nod their heads or flick their fingers and the women obeyed.
Maybe that's why some here support the FLDS; they too would like Stepford wives.
Current Tense.
-----------------------------------
" If they do it twice, throw them in jail overnight for contempt."
Current Tense.
-----------------------------------
" The idea that any real intimidation was allowed in the court for more than 5 minutes, if true, suggests a lack of control by the judge.
Mixing of tenses in one sentence.
---------------------------------
There are writing courses available that could help you communicate better.
---------
Thank you for clarifying whether you were talking about the past or present case. It makes discussion so much easier.
You were discussing a past case, in some other state. And in that case, Willie was thrown out of court for intimidating witnesses.
(from the list you supplied)
"William attended the Warren Jeffs criminal trial, but was banned from the premises after the third day of trial. It was determined that he was attempting to intimidate the witnesses..."
So, I guess you are criticizing that Judge for trying to honor the right of Willie to be in the courtroom during that trial, and trying to be patient with his 'behavior' in the courtroom for three days before the Judge threw him out.
Here, today, the Judge has ruled that he is trying to intimidate a Grand Jury Witness, BEFORE the trial, instead of five minutes into it, and yet you still complain, and condemn the actions of both Judges.
It would appear this Judge took into account his documented past behavior, which the First Judge did not have the benefit of.
I agree with you 100% on your last sentence.
The Judge in the first trial should have not waited to throw Willie out. This Judge was right to throw Willie out, and not wait three days into any upcoming trial.
OLD MOUNTAIN MAN: “baptists are not known for their high levels of intelligence or morality.”
I thought Jim Rob and the Admin Mods said that slams against religions like Baptists,Catholics, or Mormons were not allowed.
Or is OLD MOUNTAIN MAN just the crazy grandpa with Tourette’s syndrome that everyone would be best to ignore?
“I thought their “legal name” had something to do with “the Trust”.”
You are correct.
“Besides, no legal action is being brought against the church at all. The Trust owns the YFZ ranch (which I call “the camp”).”
And Willie has stated that he is there to protect the RANCH and that it, and all the people living there are to be treated as one entity.
The Ranch and the name FLDS are owned by the UEP Trust.
I have to say, as one who stays out of these religious discussions, I am unable to understand why there does indeed seem to be a double standard. I read nasty posts by certain people here often, that as far as I can tell never get any sort of handslap. The post you refer to here is but one example. Clearly I’m missing something, but I don’t expect to get enlightened.
susie
“What’s a gafftop?”
Mutant catfish, with a big sail for a dorsal. Hard as a sewage pipe and tastes about the same.
“Maybe that’s why some here support the FLDS; they too would like Stepford wives.”
But, child brides and polygamy are illegal.
I guess, there’s always blow-up dolls.
Why, child, I love you too.
Well, I’m not going to be sitting on your lap.
Maybe you should find someone who is attracted to a love/hate type of relationship.
I do not recall inviting you to sit on my lap.
Neither do I invite snakes to sit on my lap.
Four FLDS women arrived at the Schleicher County Courthouse shortly after 8 a.m. local time, too early to be allowed to enter the building where a grand jury will meet today to hear evidence of possible crimes committed by polygamous sect members.
The women clustered in a corner of a parking lot as attorneys made their way into the courthouse and dozens of troopers strolled the surrounding grassy fields. The complex has been cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape to keep out media and others not involved in the proceedings.
With the women were their attorneys, including Criselda Paz of Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, Julie Balovich of Texas Riogrande Legal Aid and Brad Haralson, a San Angelo lawyer. Later, two attorneys representing women whose ages were earlier disputed with Texas authorities -- Laura Shockley and Andrea Sloan -- also arrived.
The 12-members of the jury are expected to hear from about a dozen FLDS members today as part of a probe by the state into alleged sexual abuse involving young girls married to older men.
While grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret, some details have spilled out in court documents and testimony involving Teresa Jeffs, the 16-year-old daughter of polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs. She was accompanied by her mother, Annette Jeffs, and the two were seen speaking with an attorney before entering the building.
Teresa Jeffs is set to appear before the jury this morning, as is Natalie Malonis, her attorney. Malonis, accompanied by a security officer, arrived at the courthouse just after 9 a.m. She said she has received death threats since her dispute with Jeffs became public.
A district judge refused Tuesday to hear a motion to disqualify Malonis as the girl's lawyer based on the attorney's competing roles as witness and representative.
The state proceeding comes nearly three months after Texas Child Protective Services and law enforcement raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch to investigate a call for help. The initial call was later found to be a hoax.
But state authorities removed some 440 children from the ranch after observing what they characterized as a "pervasive pattern" of sexual abuse of young girls. Many of the girls identified by the state initially as abused minors were later found to be adult women.
The state returned the children to their parents after two higher courts found 51st District Judge Barbara Walther lacked sufficient evidence to keep them in custody.
Authorities gathered thousands of pages of documents in their sweep of the ranch they may be used to show underage marriages. They also collected about 600 DNA samples from ranch residents to link children to parents.
An Arizona investigator also has gathered Utah birth certificates for use by Texas officials, according to Jeff Duncan, director of the Utah Office of Vital Statistics.
But the women's testimony is expected to be key -- if they give it. FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said the women called as witnesses are being asked to choose between their children and their husbands, their freedom and their faith.
The great spokesman Willie Jessop said, 'the women called as witnesses are being asked to chooose between their children & their husbands, their freedom and their faith.'
IMHO, that is intimidation; say what you are supposed to say . . . or else.
I wish I could remembere what program it was where a woman who had left was interviewed. She said if she had known then what she knows now, she might not have fled. As punishment for her leaving, her family had been thrown out of their home.
FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said the women called as witnesses are being asked to choose between their children and their husbands, their freedom and their faith.
__________________________________________
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Willie
The women dont have “husbands” unless they are the FIRST and LEGAL wife..
Getting rid of a live-in boyfriend of that type would not be a long time hardship..
Are you still whining? I thought you opussed already.
And, yeah, we have a hugh and series problem with gangs of hostile posters beating up on Baptists on every thread. Will have to put my foot down someday.
I tried but you wouldnt pull the trigger
I asked once to delete the account
I'll ask again
I NEED to hear the violins.....puhleeze already LOL
have a great day Jim !
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
Don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess around with JIM!
PS> What’s that hanging from your ear?
but more importantly a dear Christian brother.I look forward to seeing you in you next incarnation here on FR.
Sorry to see you go Rev, but go with God (I know you will). You are a great man and a wonderful FRiend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.