Jailed polygamist faces new sex offense charges

Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of a polygamist church based in northern Arizona and southern Utah was served Wednesday with new indictments charging him with eight sex offense counts involving two young women.

Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said Jeffs, the 51-year-old "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was served in jail in St. George, Utah, where he awaits trial in September in connection with an alleged arrangement of a marriage of a man to an underage girl.

Smith said Jeffs is newly charged in Arizona in an indictment with two counts of sexual conduct with a minor and two counts of incest in connection with a church-sanctioned marriage between a man in his early 50s who allegedly had sex with a 17-year-old female relative.

The same counts are listed in the second indictment alleging another adult male had sexual relations with another teenage female relative.

Smith said that the victim in the second case was 15 and 16 years old at the times of the separate alleged offenses and that the man was 20 and 21 when the incidents occurred.

Smith said that Jeffs is charged under an accomplice theory and accused of arranging church-recognized marriages in which the alleged crimes occurred.

The men suspected of having sex with the teens in the north Mohave County community of Colorado city are not charged.

"The victims, at this time, do not desire prosecution against these men," Smith said.

Lack of cooperation from other women who declined to be interviewed or testify has hampered Smith's efforts to prosecute other Colorado City men suspected of sex offenses connected to marriages Jeffs arranged.

Jeffs previously was indicted in Mohave County and accused of arranging unions in which two other Colorado City men allegedly violated their assigned underage partners.