This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs renounced his role as prophet in January, telling family and select followers the Lord considered him a "wicked man" for immoral acts as a young man, according to a court document released Tuesday.
In a series of telephone calls, Jeffs said he had been immoral with a sister and a daughter and, since the age of 20, had not held the priesthood in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He made a similar statement a day later in a jailhouse visit with a brother.
Jeffs, 51, did not elaborate on the nature of his conduct in those calls and the court document - filed under seal in July by Jeffs' attorneys - doesn't provide any additional explanation.
Jeffs made the phone calls Jan. 24. He visited with his brother Nephi a day later at the Purgatory Correctional Facility, where he has been jailed since his arrest in 2006.
During that visit, Jeffs said he had been fasting for three days and had not slept the previous night. He began to dictate a religious message to followers but halted mid-sentence and stayed silent for 13 minutes, the court document says.
At the end of the visit, Jeffs again renounced his role as prophet of the sect based on the Utah-Arizona border.
He retracted the statements in February, explaining in a new series of telephone calls that he had "experienced a great spiritual test," the document states.
During this period, Jeffs suffered what has since been described as a mental and physical breakdown, brought on by extended fasting, sleeplessness and time spent on his knees praying.
He was taken to Dixie Regional Medical Center on Jan. 28 and treated for an undisclosed medical problem. His health recovered in February but ebbed again in March.
He was so visibly detached during a March 27 court hearing that 5th District Judge James L. Shumate ordered that he undergo a mental health evaluation.
Jail officials recorded the calls and videotaped Jeffs' visit with his brother - a standard procedure.
Prosecutors sought to use the statements during Jeffs' September trial for rape as an accomplice related to an arranged marriage he conducted.
But Jeffs' attorneys objected, and Shumate agreed, sealing the documents on the grounds they could impair Jeffs' right to a fair trial. He said he would revisit his order after the trial, and had set a hearing for Tuesday in response to requests for the information.
A jury convicted Jeffs on two felony rape charges on Sept. 25. Shumate will sentence him on Nov. 20.
The release of the document came as a surprise to one of Jeffs' attorneys.
"I had no idea," said Walter F. Bugden. "It's very unusual for a judge to make this sort of decision without giving the attorneys an opportunity to be heard.
"There are significant due process issues for Mr. Jeffs as it relates to future cases in Arizona and there are significant privacy issues that we believe are protected," he said.
But the debate may be over now that the court has put the document in its public file.
"It may leave nothing to argue about on November 6 because this is the heart of what the media were requesting," said Jeff Hunt, an attorney representing a media coalition. "I also think it is recognition there was no longer any compelling interest that needed to be protected in keeping these documents secret."
Bugden said he did not have any additional information about Jeffs' reference to immoral conduct.
"It's an incredibly vague, ambiguous, unclear reference to something that happened when Mr. Jeffs was 20 years old and who knows what that means," he said. "It's certainly open to wild interpretation."
Ward Jeffs, a half-brother, said Tuesday that Warren Jeffs was either single or a newlywed at age 20, adding that he was "99.9 percent sure" Jeffs had no daughter at the time.
In arguing to keep the jailhouse statements out of the trial, Bugden said that whatever "unspecified immoral act" his client had recalled might not even amount to a "legally bad act."
Now, the release of the sealed court document has only piqued a private investigator's interest in hearing the actual jailhouse recordings.
"It sounds like there are a lot more things to check," said Sam Brower, who has worked on the criminal cases against Jeffs. "But from a moral standpoint, there is whole segment of population in Washington County that needs to hear this information and protect themselves and their families from a convicted felon."