This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Only one defendant in the alleged food stamp fraud case associated with the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints remains locked up, but that could change Wednesday.
Lyle Jeffs, a full brother of imprisoned FLDS leader Warren Jeffs and the man who was running the day-to-day operations of the sect, has a hearing at 8 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. His lawyers will ask U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart to reverse a magistrate's decision to keep him in jail pending trial.
Attention on the hearing increased over the weekend. Former FLDS child bride Elissa Wall gave an interview to the British newspaper The Guardian and said people remaining in the FLDS have been told an apocalypse is coming Wednesday.
It will include earthquakes, according to the article, that will split the walls of the courthouse and free Lyle Jeffs and crumble the walls of the prison in Palestine, Texas, where Warren Jeffs is serving a sentence of 20 years plus life. Wall did not return a message The Salt Lake Tribune sent through an associate.
Lyle Jeffs' court-appointed attorneys haven't been waiting for the end of days. They filed a motion Friday arguing that Stewart should free their client, who has been in custody since indictments were unsealed Feb. 23 against 11 FLDS members.
In their motion, the lawyers argued it is rare in the federal system for defendants in white-collar cases to be jailed before trial. The lawyers also pointed to how Stewart has already set free another defendant, John Wayman, even though there was testimony that Wayman held a position in the FLDS hierarchy exceeding the church's bishops.
Lyle Jeffs has no criminal record, his lawyers also pointed out, and apparently was deemed a low risk to abscond by a U.S. Marshal who did an evaluation.
Prosecutors have described Lyle Jeffs as presiding over the scheme in which FLDS members donated their food stamp debit cards to the church or used the cards at FLDS-run businesses where the benefits were converted into cash. But Lyle Jeffs' attorneys contend that since he was indicted, the government has offered no more information about his role in the alleged fraud — only information about how Lyle Jeffs aided his infamous brother during his run from the law from 2004 to 2006.
In considering whether to hold Wayman and another defendant, Nephi Allred, Stewart called such information dated. Stewart released Wayman, Allred and Seth Jeffs, who is another full brother to Warren Jeffs, after other judges had ordered them to be detained.
Meanwhile, former Jeffs followers in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., the sect's traditional home, want Lyle Jeffs to stay in jail, but for reasons that have nothing to do with the legal issues before Stewart.
"Nobody wants him out," said Lorin Holm. "He doesn't mind his business."
Holm is among those in Hildale and Colorado City, collectively known as Short Creek, who accuse Lyle Jeffs of separating families by evicting people from the sect and banning remaining members from speaking with them.
Holm is still in a custody dispute with his second wife and says Lyle Jeffs has told her to disobey court orders and to keep Holm's children from him. Holm fears such influence will continue if Lyle Jeffs is freed.
Seven other defendants in the fraud case were immediately released following their arrests in February. A trial for all the defendants, each of whom is charged with two counts of conspiracy, is scheduled for May 31.
Lyle Jeffs, 56, was the bishop of Short Creek when he was arrested. His status now is unclear. Former Jeffs followers and federal prosecutors have said a Jeffs loyalist named Ben Johnson had assumed the bishop duties in Short Creek.
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