Texas AG Greg Abbott wasn't kidding when he said Judge Walther runs things swiftly. Opening statements are set to start tomorrow, after they hash out whether to admit evidence from the Escalade Jeffs was arrested in five years ago.
He's been behind bars in one state or another ever since that arrest. (Here's our timeline of the life and times of Warren Jeffs) The cache of Escalade evidence — including wigs, stacks of cash, fake ID's and letters to Jeffs — has also been largely out of public view.
Perhaps not shockingly, Walther shut down the defense on the Texas search warrant issue today, ruling that they hadn't even raised enough new questions to call witnesses. She did agree to hear arguments on supressing the Nevada evidence, though.
A Utah judge ruled the stop legal in 2007, in connection to Jeffs' accomplice to rape trial later that year. (He was found guilty of those charges, but that conviction was overturned last year, and they sent him to Texas. If you're confused, refer back to the timline :)
Meanwhile, Attorney Robert Udashen said something interesting after Walther ruled against him. Udashen and his brother are now the point men for the FLDS on the search warrant fight — not only for Jeffs but for all 12 men charged after the raid.
I asked him whether he's heard anything on Michael Emack, the contractor whose case became the first to hit the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals in May.
No opinon yet, he said. But either way, it might not be over.
"It could end up going to the U.S. Supreme Court," he said.
