This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Polygamist sect leader and convicted rapist Warren Jeffs remained hospitalized in Galveston, Texas, on Monday, nearly a week after being taken there from the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville.
Prison spokesman Robert Hurst told The Salt Lake Tribune that Jeffs, the 58-year-old "prophet" of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was taken to Hospital Galveston under guard on March 11 for treatment of "a non-life threatening medical condition."
Hurst, citing privacy laws, would not confirm whether Jeffs' illness had resulted from extended fasting, a practice that landed the leader of the Utah-Arizona polygamous sect in hospitals before during his various trials and subsequent imprisonments.
Jeffs is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2011 for sexual assaulting two underage girls, whom Jeffs had characterized as his spiritual wives. One of the girls gave birth to Jeffs' child at age 15.
Hurt would only describe Jeffs' condition on Monday as "stable."
A month ago, Jeffs was described as looking "pathetic" and "frail" by a Salt Lake City attorney, Roger Hoole, who attempted to depose him in prison in connection with a polygamy-related child custody case.
Jeffs refused to cooperate, repeatedly invoking his Fifth Amendment rights.
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