Defense takes over in trial of polygamist sect leader
ST. GEORGE, Utah -- Defense attorneys for a polygamous-sect leader charged with sex crimes in the arranged marriage of a 14-year-old girl and her older cousin began their case Tuesday, trying to debunk the contention his church places women in submissive roles.
Warren Jeffs, 51, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is accused of using his influence to push the girl into a marriage with her 19-year-old cousin in 2001 and forcing her to have unwanted sex. He is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice.
The prosecution ended its presentation and then Jeffs' lawyers began calling witnesses, arguing against the idea that men and church leaders have more power than women. Testimony from the young bride, now 21, and her two sisters, as well as sermons from Jeffs played for the jury, have suggested that women are without a voice in FLDS marriages and that they must submit to their husbands "mind, body and soul."
Defense witness and church member Jennie Pipkin, 26, told jurors her experience was different. She testified she twice sought Jeffs' counsel in 2005 after unwanted sexual advances from her husband. She said she became "empowered" to ask Jeffs for help after reading one of his sermons that directs men to only engage in sexual relations that are invited by their wives.
"I realized that I was supposed to be in charge. The invitation for sexual relations is supposed to be mine," said Pipkin, who runs her own Internet marketing business and has five children.
Before resting their case, prosecutors played a 30-minute sermon for jurors in which Jeffs and fellow church member Sam Barlow addressed ceremonial marriages involving minors.
On the 2002 tape, Jeffs said the sect's principles were under attack by Utah and Arizona authorities.
Barlow, a former marshal in Colorado City, Ariz., a small community on the Utah-Arizona state line dominated by members of the sect, talked on the tape about pressure from authorities.
"We are born to this conflict," Barlow said. "We cannot shirk it or turn away from it for a moment."
The young bride in the case left her marriage and the FLDS church in 2004 after becoming pregnant with another man's child. The Associated Press generally does not identify people alleging sexual abuse.
Jeffs has been president of the church since 2002. Followers see him as a prophet who communicates with God and holds dominion over their salvation. Ex-church members say he reigns with an iron fist, demanding perfect obedience from followers.
If convicted of the charges, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
The FLDS church practices polygamy and represents itself as an offshoot of the mainstream Mormon church, based in Salt Lake City. The Mormons, however, disavow any connection and renounced polygamy in 1890 as a condition of statehood.