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."
Nothing but.
Problem is, according to you, Romney’s record consists entirely of the few minutes of video you chose to pay attention to. The remaining years of his record, you dismissed as irrelevant. You had what you wanted and contradicting info was neither considered nor tolerated.
In case you missed this I will repeat: I have known the man for most of my 44 years. The man you describe is no one I know. So, when I heard such garbage being written about him, his wife, his kids, his ancestors and his religion on this site, I tried to give the other side of the story but you insisted that I was a liar and a fraud. Now, primary season can bring out the worst in people but this particular season saw many here on FR sink to new lows and, unfortunately, you, wittingly or not, led the charge.
So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that people who loathe and detest the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and therefore opposed Romney on that basis, would perceive your attitude as one that was sympathetic to their beliefs. Let me be perfectly clear on this: Your complete lack of integrity and balance regarding Mitt Romney, his candidacy, his family, his religion and his supporters, encouraged the behavior that you now claim to find so distasteful. If you want to address this on this site, you will need to address this issue within yourself first. I intended my first remarks as constructive criticism. Take this posting however you like.
Whatever pal. He ran and governed as a big government abortionist liberal. I don’t give a squat about his religion.
If you don’t like the way I run FR, why don’t you just take a freaking hike.
"Other than THAT; Mrs. Lincoln; how did you like the play?"
[As a result, some who opposed Romney specifically for his religion, saw that latitude as an implicit endorsement of their views. Primaries are a rough and tumble, often confusing time, politically speaking, and there are those who use that confusion to spread their views that otherwise wouldn’t be socially acceptable during any other time. Opposing someone based on their religion is simply not acceptable in most cases in the eyes of most Americans and those who do so can’t openly admit to this so, they use a cover story like the “He’s a liberal” rant as a trojan horse for their own views. My two cents, for what its worth.]
Thank God (that would be me) that it is “socially unacceptable” to oppose someone on the basis of their religion (FastCoyoteism - it is all about me me me 24/7).
Now, if you can’t logically defend your position without bowing down to my obviously superior religion (by the way, I’m running for President of the Universe), what makes you think anyone else should listen to your illogic?
FreeRepublic! Unless you are socially unacceptable??? Now there’s a motto!
And you don’t give squat about facts, either. You have your small, in every sense of the word, opinion and no amount of data will persuade you from it. You are everything the libs accuse us conservatives of being. You are a tiresome egomaniac who has taken the Web’s premier Conservative website from the top 1,000 list to barely registering on any of the charts. Well done.
Me, I’ll go hang out with my “liberal” buddies like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, Robert Bork and so on who all thought Mitt Romney was sufficiently Conservative. But what do they know? They’re all Marxists in disguise, right? No, you saw through the smoke screen of solid Conservative endorsements and brought us, by default, the candidacy of John McCain. Again, well done, sir. Bravo!
Classy. Always classy. Remember this: anti-Mormons have failed for 150 years to bring down the church. They murdered the prophet and many of his followers. They drove the Mormons out of settled US territory through force and violence (and then claimed to be the victims of Mormon violence.). And yet, despite your “best” efforts, the church is now a world-wide organization with millions of adherents.
You have failed. You have always failed. You will continue to fail for the foreseeable future. And yet you stick to it thinking that people are falling for your line of bs this time. It hasn’t worked in nearly two centuries, why do you think its going to now? You know, most people have the intelligence to stop digging when they’re in a hole. But you people just keep digging faster and deeper and think you’re making progress. Enjoy. You’re going to see nothing but dirt and darkness for the rest of your lives.
[Classy. Always classy. Remember this: anti-Mormons have failed for 150 years to bring down the church. ]
No, I was decidedly unclassy, and for a purpose. If you cannot defend your position (that all religions should be given a free pass in the political arena), when you are confronted by my UnClassy religion, that means your logic has failed and failed rather Titanically.
[They murdered the prophet and many of his followers. ]
You mean of course Lt. General Joseph Smith, the guy who led the raid on Zion (how many did he want to kill there?), at best looked the other way at the Danites at Far West (how many Gentiles was he prepared to have die there?) and was about to allow a Civil War start with his Mormon Legion at Nauvoo before he was cut down like a meek lamb?? You mean that prophet? Or the prophet Jesus who led no armies and held back the sword of his defenders?
[They drove the Mormons out of settled US territory through force and violence (and then claimed to be the victims of Mormon violence.). ]
Oh yeah, Joseph Smith, meek and mild, though it is well known that he was a street brawler, never incited his followers to anything beyond a quilting bee.
[And yet, despite your “best” efforts, the church is now a world-wide organization with millions of adherents.]
It’s a free country, I’ve never tried to stop anyone from worshipping Baal.
[You have failed. You have always failed. You will continue to fail for the foreseeable future. And yet you stick to it thinking that people are falling for your line of bs this time. It hasn’t worked in nearly two centuries, why do you think its going to now?]
I wouldn’t consider it a failure to have provided insight into peepstones and Holy garments and Kolob and Spirit wives, etc. etc. Free minds will realize those are objects of fakery, unless you plan to cram Mormonism down everyone else’s throats by force.
[You know, most people have the intelligence to stop digging when they’re in a hole.]
I notice you are unable to refute my premise that since I am God you cannot oppose my presidential bid lest you oppose a candidate for religious reasons. By the way, my religion says you must vote for me, now don’t mock my religion.
[But you people just keep digging faster and deeper and think you’re making progress. Enjoy. You’re going to see nothing but dirt and darkness for the rest of your lives.]
That is certainly a kind Christian thing to say.
Uh, huh. But then, shiny objects make you laugh too.
Yeah, like those shiny, smoking wheel guns in your dear martyred prophet’s hands. Hilarious.
Well, heck! That's gratitude fer ya!
FR is pretty much declared a "no anti-mormonism posting zone" by JR, and this is the thanks he gets!
Excellent, reaganesque.
Shades of Joseph Smith and Missouri!
You have blown a gasket. Regrettable.
Bravo!
Hate to break it to you, but Joe Smith was killed during a botched jailbreak attempt, in which he killed two other men.
And have you ever heard of a little incident called the Mountain Meadows Massacre or a fellow named Porter Rockwell?
Just curious...
Placemark.
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