Another FLDS Church member detained pending food-stamp fraud trial

A second member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints indicted on federal charges of food stamp fraud has been ordered by a judge to remain behind bars pending trial.

On Wednesday, Nephi Steed Allred was detained following a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Braithwaite in St. George.

Braithwaite found that Allred, 40 — who helped FLDS leader and prophet Warren Jeffs while he was on the run from the law a decade ago — "poses a significant flight risk."

Allred is one of 11 FLDS Church leaders and members living in Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz., collectively known as Short Creek, who are accused in indictments unsealed last week of diverting the proceeds of federal food stamp debit cards to personal and church accounts.

A South Dakota judge has ordered that Seth Steed Jeffs, 42, be detained pending trial. John Clifton Wayman, 56, has a detention hearing March 10.

A day-long detention hearing is set for Monday for Lyle Steed Jeffs, 56, who, prosecutors say, handled day-to-day affairs of the church for his older brother, Warren Jeffs, who is serving up to life in prison plus 20 years in Texas for crimes related to marrying and sexually abusing underage girls.

Seven other defendants have been booked into jail and released under conditions that include wearing GPS ankle monitoring devices.

In deciding to detain Allred, Braithwaite wrote in his order that:

• The FLDS has an elaborate system of moving and hiding members to avoid law enforcement, which includes an underground system of hiding places, elusively titled vehicles, and regularly replaced cell phones.

• Warren Jeffs is on record as saying, "No person, no court ... has the authority to bring God into question what he has his prophets do ... "

The judge noted that Allred assisted Warren Jeffs while he was on the run during 2005 and 2006 from Utah charges of being an accomplice to rape for presiding over the unwilling marriage of a then-14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin.

Braithwaite wrote that Allred acted as a caretaker and courier by relocating Jeffs' wives, acquiring a car for Jeffs' use, asking if the title should be put "in a made up name," and transferring envelopes of cash to help facilitate various deceptions.

Jeffs was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list when he was arrested in August 2006 by a Nevada state trooper who stopped the red Cadillac Escalade for having a partially obscured temporary registration tag. Police later found wigs, 14 cell phones and nearly $68,000 in hundred-dollar-bills inside the SUV.

In 2007, Jeffs was convicted in Utah of being an accomplice to rape. But in 2010, the Utah Supreme Court overturned the verdict due to faulty jury instructions.

Braithwaite said that Allred "has the knowledge and ability to utilize the same system" used by Warren Jeffs, should he be released.

Allred, who is an accountant for the FLDS, "has the financial means to access funds, and the incentive — since he is facing a maximum of twenty-five years — to flee and avoid trial and possible consequences in this case," the judge wrote, adding: "It should be noted that the FLDS maintains properties outside the United States."