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A Utah judge has rejected arguments that rape charges were filed too late against FLDS member Allen G. Steed, a decision that allows the case to move forward to trial.

Fifth District Judge G. Rand Beacham denied a defense motion to drop charges against Steed, whose marriage to Elissa Wall was the basis of the state's case against FLDS church leader Warren S. Jeffs.

Steed was charged with rape on Sept. 26, 2007, a day after a St. George jury found Jeffs guilty of being an accomplice to rape. Jim Bradshaw, Steed's attorney, argued the state waited too long to charge Steed.

But Beacham found that a casual conversation between an Arizona investigator and Wall's boyfriend qualified as a crime report to law enforcement and fell within the allowed time frame for such reports.

In 2001, Jeffs, then a counselor in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, performed a spiritual marriage between Steed and Wall at a motel in Caliente, Nev. Wall, then 14, says she objected to marrying Steed, then 19, and didn't want to have sex with him. Steed testified during Jeffs' trial that Wall initiated their intimacy.

The state alleges nonconsenual sex occurred between Steed and Wall sometime between May 4, 2001, and May 12, 2001.

Wall left Steed in 2004 after beginning an affair with Lamont Barlow. In January 2005, Barlow bumped into Mohave County special investigator Gary Engels at a restaurant in Hurricane and told him about Wall's forced marriage and alleged sexual assault. The next day, Engels relayed the conversation to Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap.

Until 2005, Utah law required rape charges to be filed within four years of an alleged offense. The law was then changed to allow a rape charge to be filed up to eight years after an offense as long as the allegation was reported to law enforcement within four years.

In his ruling, Beacham said Engel's status as an investigator met the requirement that a report be made to law enforcement. Beacham also said it was clear that "Mr. Engels did receive a sufficient report of 'what was done and who did it.'"

"We're disappointed but still optimistic that we'll prevail on the issue," Bradshaw said Tuesday.

Bradshaw said the issue was presented to the judge based on facts agreed to by the defense and state. Now, he will request an evidentiary hearing challenging the facts — specifically, what Barlow said to Engels and when, and how that was communicated to the Washington County Attorney's Office.

The Utah Supreme Court in July reversed Jeffs' convictions based on the Wall marriage, ruling that he was denied a fair trial because of faulty jury instructions. The court sent the case back, but Belnap has not yet decided whether to seek a new trial.

The state of Texas, meanwhile, is seeking to extradite Jeffs to face charges of bigamy, aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault.

E-mail: brooke@sltrib.com

Twitter: @thepolygamyfile