Polygamist Back In Jail After Hospital
FLDS Leader Warren Jeffs Was Hospitalized After Suffering Convulsions
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Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was released from the hospital on July 9, 2008, after suffering convulsions. (AP)
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Play CBS Video Video The Godfather Susan Spencer takes a closer look at jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs.
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Video Warren Jeffs Home Video In this undated video, former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs leads a prayer service before a talent show at a polygamist school. Video courtesy of Kathy Jo Nicholson, who left the organization 17 years ago.
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Video Polygamy Sect Leader Guilty Warren Jeffs, the leader of a breakaway Mormon sect in Utah, has been found guilty of being an accomplice to rape for forcing an underage girl to marry. Hattie Kauffman reports.
"I can confirm he is in our custody at the Mohave County Jail," Trish Carter, spokeswoman for Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan, told The Associated Press.
Carter said the 52-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was returned Wednesday to the Kingman, Ariz., jail where Carter said he had been found conscious but in a "weakened state of health, acting in a convulsive manner, shaking, and running a fever" on Tuesday.
"The obvious question now is what the problem was," said Carter, who said jailers weren't told Jeffs' medical diagnosis but did not believe his condition was life-threatening.
Jeffs was first treated at Kingman Regional Medical Center, and then flown by medical helicopter about 100 miles to Las Vegas, where he was hospitalized under heavy guard. A hospital spokesman said no patient had been listed under Jeffs' name.
Jeffs has been in custody since his August 2006 arrest outside Las Vegas. He had been on the run for more than a year, and made the FBI's Most Wanted List before his capture.
Utah court documents show Jeffs lost 30 pounds in jail awaiting his 2007 trial in St. George, Utah, and that he was hospitalized for treatment of a self-imposed fast, dehydration and sleep deprivation.
A clinical social worker who interviewed Jeffs in April 2007 reported Jeffs attempted to hang himself in January 2007 at the Washington County jail, and was seen several days later throwing himself against walls and banging his head.
Records show Jeffs was treated in a Utah prison infirmary in February 2007 for health problems attributed to refusing to eat. Utah authorities say the 6-foot-3 Jeffs weighed 145 pounds when he was moved Feb. 26 to Arizona.
Jeffs was convicted by a Utah jury of two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison for his role in the 2001 marriage of a 14-year-old follower to her 19-year-old cousin.
Jeffs is charged in Arizona as an accomplice with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor stemming from marriages he allegedly arranged between underage girls and older men.
Four counts of incest as an accomplice were dropped last month after Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn found Arizona's incest law does not apply to the arranged marriages of teenage girls and their older male relatives.
Carter said Jeffs has been in protective custody at the Mohave County Jail - alone in his cell 23 hours a day, and allowed one hour of recreation segregated from other inmates.
Jeffs was named in 2002 as the president, or prophet, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an insular sect with nearly 6,000 followers that practices polygamy in arranged marriages that have sometimes involved underage girls.
Many FLDS members live in the twin border towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, about 160 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Another FLDS ranch was raided in west Texas in April, setting off a lengthy legal battle over the custody of hundreds of children.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
- He''s trying to committ suicide to avoid facing the music. If he wants to die, I say let him have the chair.
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- If Jeff wants to hang himself, let him. The Freak is never getting out of jail.
Posted by MorganBarber at 03:48 PM
No, no no. Death is too easy, too fast, too quick. It''s an escape.
Let him rot to a ripe old age of 110 or so so he can ponder the depth of his mistakes. - Reply to this comment
- "A clinical social worker who interviewed Jeffs in April 2007 reported Jeffs attempted to hang himself in January 2007 at the Washington County jail, and was seen several days later throwing himself against walls and banging his head."
Sounds like jail agrees with him. BAHAHAHA! WOOHOO! - Reply to this comment
- "FLDS Leader Warren Jeffs Was Hospitalized After Suffering Convulsions"
Sound''s like statutory withdrawals...or maybe polygamy spasms... - Reply to this comment
- If Jeff wants to hang himself, let him. The Freak is never getting out of jail.
- Reply to this comment
- If Jeff wants to hang himself, let him. The Freak is never getting out of jail.
- Reply to this comment
- His medical condition involved his horney desires to copulate with one of his teenage wives. Plain and Simple. Who was there at the hospital to "visit" his stiffness?
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