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Two weeks before he is scheduled to go to trial in Texas on charges that could put him in prison for life, it isn't yet clear who will represent polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs.
Newly hired Houston attorney Emily Detoto said Monday she will argue for the second time that state District Judge Barbara Walther should be removed.
But Detoto said she hasn't yet been hired to represent Jeffs at his trial on July 25. After hiring Detoto on July 1, Jeffs last week fired his high-profile defense attorney, Jeff Kearney, of Fort Worth.
"I was hired to prosecute this motion for rehearing," Detoto said Monday, adding that whether she would represent Jeffs at trial is "to be determined."
Asked whether the trial may be postponed, she said, "I honestly don't know."
Kearney filed a motion to withdraw Thursday, writing that Jeffs had fired him the day before. He remains the attorney of record, however, until there is a ruling on the withdrawal motion, Detoto said.
Walther was on vacation Monday, a court clerk said.
A judge last month rejected Kearney's arguments that Walther's body language in other hearings showed she was biased against members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But sitting judge John Hyde on Monday granted Detoto's motion for a rehearing on the issue. The rehearing is set for Monday.
Detoto argued that since Walther had signed the search warrant that led to a massive 2008 raid on the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado — and warned a children's advocacy center that children there might be removed — she had already "in essence, made a judgment" in the case.
But Detoto said Monday she had not been hired to defend the FLDS leader at trial.
"Right now, my goals, and what I was hired to do, is prepare, file and litigate the motion for rehearing on the recusal," she said.
Jeffs, 55, is charged with sexual assault and bigamy in connection with two alleged spiritual marriages to underage girls, one younger than 17 and the other under the age of 14.
Twitter: @lwhitheurst