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Another member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been ordered to remain behind bars pending trial on federal charges of food stamp fraud.
Seth Steed Jeffs, 42, of Custer, S.D., appeared Monday in a federal court in South Dakota, where a judge ordered him to remain in custody and to be transferred to Utah by federal marshals. In making the decision to detain Jeffs, U.S. Magistrate Judge Daneta Wollman found there was "serious risk" he would not appear for court hearings in the case.
On Friday, a judge in Salt Lake City ordered defendant John Clifton Wayman, 56, detained, finding that he, too, presented a risk to flee.
Meanwhile, a detention hearing is set for March 7 for Lyle Steed Jeffs, who, prosecutors say, handled day-to-day affairs of the church for his older brother, prophet Warren Jeffs, who is serving up to life in prison plus 20 years in Texas for crimes related to marrying and sexually abusing underage girls.
The three men are among 11 FLDS leaders and members who were each charged last week with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of fraud.
Several defendants have been booked into jail and released with GPS ankle monitoring devices.
As of Monday, only one defendant, Kimball Dee Barlow, 51, had not been apprehended or surrendered.
The federal government alleges that the FLDS living in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz., collectively known as Short Creek, ordered followers receiving food stamp benefits to give to the church their government-issued debit cards. The money was spent, an indictment alleges, at church-run stores and diverted to various church and personal expenses.
U.S. Magistrate Robert Braithwaite has scheduled a status conference for all defendants in the case for March 22 in St. George.