The constitutionality of the controversial raids at a polygamist community ranch in Texas will not be litigated in Arizona after all. Arizona attorneys have reached a stipulation that vacates the February 17 hearing that had been scheduled for a defense motion to suppress evidence seized during the April, 2008 law enforcement exercise at the Yearning For Zion (YFZ) ranch outside Eldorado.
The Texas ranch held by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) is where authorities rounded up more than 400 women and children based upon a telephone call involving alleged abuse that was later learned to be a false report and a hoax. The leader of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, 53, currently awaits trial in Kingman for allegedly arranging unions that allowed male adults to have illegal sexual relations with their underage teenage relatives.
The crimes being prosecuted in Kingman allegedly occurred in the north Mohave County community of Colorado City, where the FLDS church is based, with some members living in the bordering Utah community of Hildale. Jeffs' attorney Mike Piccarreta argued that no evidence seized in the Texas raid should be used in the Arizona case because it was gathered through an improper and illegal search.
Piccarreta had prepared subpoenas directing Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran, Texas Ranger Brooks Long and others to appear at the February 17 suppression hearing in Kingman. That hearing, however, has been vacated as attorneys
reached an agreement that none of the YFZ information will be used in the Arizona case.
``The evidence obtained thereby is suppressed and the State agrees that it will not use any evidence obtained as the result of the search of the YFZ Ranch, directly or indirectly, in his case-in-chief, during cross-examination of any called defense witnesses, as rebuttal evidence, or for any purpose whatsoever," stated the stipulation adopted by Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven F. Conn. The Judge noted in his minute order that Jeffs has been awaiting trial in Kingman for nearly two years.
``The Court does not know whether eliminating the possibility that any evidence seized in the Texas search could be used in these cases makes these cases any more ready to go to trial than before," the order stated. ``The Court has certainly had the impression that that possibility was a major obstacle to getting these cases resolved."
Judge Conn directed Piccarreta and Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith to brief the Court by February 22 regarding what matters should next be addressed in the Jeffs' prosecution.
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