This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Bishop Lyle Jeffs will not have to testify at a civil discrimination trial scheduled to begin Tuesday in Phoenix.
Instead, prosecutors can play a video recording of a pre-trial deposition given by Jeffs, said U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland in an order quashing the government's subpoena calling for Jeffs' presence.
"The court is unpersuaded by the United States' contention that it will be prejudiced if Jeffs does not appear for trial in person," Holland wrote.
Whether Jeffs would testify in person was the latest dispute over what jurors will get to hear in a trial scheduled to last four weeks.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., in 2012. It alleges that the towns discriminate against people who do not follow the polygamous FLDS Church.
In his motion to quash the subpoena, Jeffs' attorney, Michael Piccarreta, cited a court rule that says people who are not parties to a case are not required to travel more than 100 miles to testify.
Prosecutors had countered by citing a court rule stating that a person who regularly transacts business in person within the state where a trial will be held may be subpoenaed. Prosecutors argued that Jeffs' position as a bishop of the FLDS Church, his presence in the Leroy Steed Johnson meeting house where church members gather in Colorado City and Jeffs' direction of work projects that FLDS Church members carry out in Colorado City were all evidence of business transactions.
But the judge wrote that prosecutors had "presented no authority supporting the proposition that Jeffs' activities as a bishop of the FLDS Church constituted the conduct of business" for purposes of the rule.
Much of the justice department's case is built around conversations and correspondence between officials in the towns and Jeffs and his imprisoned brother, FLDS President Warren Jeffs. The Justice Department, in a motion, has called Lyle Jeffs a "key co-conspirator" in the discrimination and wanted him to testify even if he planned to cite his constitutional rights and refuse to answer any questions.
The lawyer for Colorado City and Lyle Jeffs' lawyer each have said that federal attorneys should just play Jeffs' pre-trial deposition.
Lawyers for all sides have already argued over whether to permit discussion of polygamy and Warren Jeffs, who is serving a sentence of up to life in prison plus 20 years in Texas for crimes related to marrying and sexually abusing underage girls.
Holland has ruled that those topics may be discussed at trial if they relate to allegations of discrimination.
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