Security Increased for FLDS Hearing Today

Deseret News ^ | Tuesday, June 24, 2008 | Ben Winslow and Pat Reavy

[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."

[greyfoxx39]

Sorry to see you go Rev, but go with God (I know you will). You are a great man and a wonderful FRiend.

Dittos, R. More time to fish, though ;) And one less pig to hose. /s

[ejonesie22]

Interesting, and ironic...

[muawiyah]

Which means, of course, that the "church" to which they all supposedly belong simply borrows the FLDS name (presumably rent free), and itself has NO NAME AT ALL of which any of us are aware (unless, maybe, it's just another branch of the COTFB).

I believe that ends the debate about the name, their corporate structure, and whether or not they have "one household" or "many households".

I suspect it's long overdue for one of the 300+ lawyers brought in on this case to go back to the Texas Supreme Court with a complaint against the lawyers who falsely argued that residential complex and the people associated with it actually constituted several households within the meaning of the Texas statutes.

[hocndoc]

I think that with Old Mountain Man, it’s a case of you can’t talk about our kin, but we can drag their dirty laundry all over the place.

Am I right, Mr. Man?

[Old Mountain man]

ROFLOL

[Osage Orange]

Mutant catfish, with a big sail for a dorsal. Hard as a sewage pipe and tastes about the same.

I think I ate a fillet of that once........

[sevenbak]

Interesting perspective and history. It's ironic that though our stories are quite similar, yet the end result is so different. I too was ordained a High Priest at the age of 28, by my father who was also a HP. I've served in 3 different bishoprics, have read the scriptures more times than I have counted, etc, etc. Yet, my love of the Gospel is unashamedly clear.

Personally, I don't think one's specific calling in the church matters much, nor the time they have been serving. The laborers who are called in the 11th hour receive equal treatment from the Master as the servant who works the whole day. (Matt 20)

I'm sorry your path took you to such a different place. I hope you have or will find peace someday.

Sevenbak

[sevenbak]

Bye Rev. It has been a ride. Enjoy the fishing, I seriously wish I had the time to do more of that!! Especially with the kids.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Yes, it is true. You don’t remember when Lady Diana had to get a doctor’s validation of virginity in order to marry Prince Charles? It was all over the news. Rather humiliating I thought.

[Osage Orange]

ROFLOL!!

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Why is that funny?

[sevenbak]

I think they have a restorative surgery for that now. If this article can be believed, it’s supposedly all the rage among Muslim women in Europe.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/10/europe/virgin.php

[Alice in Wonderland]

What do you do when you get bored with sitting outside a courthouse waiting to testify to a grand jury?

If you are Teresa Jeffs, you climb a towering live oak.

Teresa, the 16-year-old daughter of FLDS leader Warren S. Jeffs, got four women and several attorneys to help her haul a picnic table over to the tree. Despite her long blue dress, Teresa clambered up and found a nice branch where she perched about 30-feet off the ground.

It's been that kind of day. Not much to do but wait. Or check out the view from several stories above ground.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Yes, I heard it was gaining popularity in France.

I’m still waiting to hear why it’s so funny and impossible for a doctor to determine whether a woman is a virgin or not.

[sevenbak]

Can’t help ya there. My wife is a English History nut, and I think I remember her telling me, that like you posted about Diana, it’s mandatory among royalty prior to marriage, and had been millennia. I’ll have to ask her about that.

[patton]

That is...magic.

[brytlea]

Yes...the magic of photoshop.... ;)
susie

[Alice in Wonderland]

More info on Tuesday's restraining order hearing:

Judge Barbara Walther extended the Temporary Restraining Order against Willie Jessop for 90-days.

Rather than hearing the issue, attorneys negotiated an extension of the TRO that prohibits Jessop, also known as King Willie, Willie the Enforcer, and Willie the Thug (according to published reports) from having any contact with Teresa Jeffs, 16, the daughter of convicted felon Warren Jeffs and Annette Jeffs.

Salt Lake City attorney Jim Bradshaw said that Jessop came to Texas just to 'help' other FLDS members.

Yeah, right.

Is that why Malonis has to have an armed guard? Because the death threats aren't really intimidation? Or it could be that the Texas Rangers protecting her believe that her life is in danger - since Rangers are not normally the ones that provide protective services...

During the process, the lawyer for Annette Jeffs, Tim Edwards moved to remove Judge Walther from the case - which was immediately shot down by the Administrative Judge for the area, Judge John Hyde, who stated that the motion had no merit.

The TRO hearing then resumed, and Malonis dropped a bombshell, with documentary evidence that said the girl had been sexually abused - Walther immediately cleared the courtroom, and within about two hours, all the lawyers had agreed to the 90 day extension of the TRO.

According to the article by Paul Anthony of the San Angelo paper, the FLDS refused to agree to any extension of the TRO prior to the hearing. As soon as it appeared evidence was about to be presented, they agree to extending the TRO.

I wonder why? I mean, wasn't their position that King Willie had done nothing wrong (despite having been tossed from a Utah courtroom for intimidation) and that the girl had not been abused? If she hadn't been abused and there was no intimidation, why not proceed and get the TRO lifted?

Or could it be that there is evidence, and the FLDS is trying to keep it out of the press so they can continue to spin this? It seems to be a pattern, as the same thing happened when CPS was preparing to call child witnesses the last time there was an impasse, and all of a sudden the FLDS folded and agreed to the judge's orders.

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Coram Non Judice is the blog of TxBluesMan. Some think he is Sheriff Doran.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I am offend about this that is published over and over every year:

I am confused, as you are the one who I see posting that year after year, and sometimes day after day.

Further, why does it "offend" you that a person in another religion thinks your religion is wrong? As a Christian, I believe that Budhism is not true, that Hinduism is not true, that Islam is not true, and I think most of us believe Scientology is not true.

If it said that those who believe in Presbyterianism are evil wenches fit only to serve the dogs, I could see how it could be offensive.

[CharlesWayneCT]

The tense was correct, although if you don’t know that, me telling it to you won’t help. My post was a directive as to how a judge SHOULD handle the situation such as suggested by the post I was responding to.

I’m sorry that you were confused, and glad that we were able to clarify things for you. I forgot that I don’t waste my time doing that anymore.