Texas wants Warren Jeffs after Utah conviction is overturned

Warren Jeff's conviction was overturned in Utah earlier this week.
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Texas begins new proceedings to extradite Mormon sect leader Warren Jeffs

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Robert T. Garrett

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Tuesday immediately began a new proceeding to extradite Warren Jeffs, a spokesman for Abbott said.

"We are currently working with the Texas governor's office and Utah authorities to bring Warren Jeffs to Texas to stand trial," said the spokesman, Jerry Strickland.

Jeffs was indicted by a Schleicher County grand jury on three sexual offenses, all first-degree felonies, in July 2008. At the time, Abbott said he hoped to extradite Jeffs, then in an Arizona jail awaiting separate charges, to Texas "as quickly as possible."

The rural West Texas county is home to the breakaway Mormon sect's Yearning for Zion ranch. Three months before Jeffs' indictment, Child Protective Services removed 440 children and about two dozen women over allegations the community permitted a culture of sexual abuse and marriages between girls and much older men.

Robert T. Garrett