By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
In a bizarre rant in which he claimed God would soon take the life of the judge who is presiding over his sexual assault case, polygamist leader Warren Jeffs failed in his third attempt to have the judge removed from the case.
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that Jeffs, 55, who is facing charges of sexually assaulting two underage girls he took as brides, fired his attorneys last week and is now representing himself. The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) showed up in court with a statement he claimed was from God in which District Judge Barbara Walther was ordered to “step away from this abuse of power against a religious and pure faith in the Lord.”
According to Jeffs, the Lord supposedly gave him a message for the judge on Sunday which said: “I am to now recuse you from this case. Now sign order [sic] to recuse thyself; and allow this proceeding to stop … ”
In an attached affidavit, Jeffs also claims that God will soon take Walthers’ life.
“Let also Barbara Walthers [sic] be of a humbling to know I have sent a crippling disease upon her which shall take her life soon,” the affidavit states.
Walthers walks with a limp as a result of polio which she suffered as a child.
Jeffs has filed 29 other alleged orders from the Lord which he also claimed to have received last week.
The charges against Jeffs stem from a massive police raid that took place in April 2008 at Yearning For Zion, a church compound about 45 miles south of San Angelo. Authorities moved in after receiving an anonymous call to an abuse shelter alleging that minor girls were being forced into polygamist marriages. Even though the call turned out to be a hoax, and more than 400 children who had been taken into custody were eventually returned to their families, police saw underage girls during the raid who were obviously pregnant. This prompted the charges against Jeffs and 11 other FLDS men.
Thus far, seven of them have been convicted of crimes including sexual assault and bigamy and are currently serving between six and 75 years in prison.
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