Seth Jeffs transferred to Utah for food stamp fraud case
Seth Steed Jeffs, 32, right, of Hildale, Utah, leaves the federal courthouse in Denver with his brother Lyle, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005, after entering a plea of not guilty on charges of concealing his brother, fugitive polygamist sect leader Warren Steed Jeffs. Seth Jeffs was arrested after a traffic stop Oct. 28 in Pueblo County south of Denver. Authorities said he had nearly $142,000 in cash, about $7,000 worth of prepaid debit and phone cards and Warren Jeffs' personal papers in his SUV. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
Seth Jeffs, one of the defendants in a food-stamp-fraud case involving a polygamous sect, has arrived in Utah from South Dakota.
Jeffs and 10 other leaders and members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were indicted in the federal case last month.
Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. — collectively known as Short Creek — are home to the FLDS church, though Jeffs leads a congregation in South Dakota, where he was taken into custody. The U.S. Marshals have transferred him to Utah, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Thursday.
Federal prosecutors say FLDS leaders ordered members to give their food-stamp benefits — in food and cash transfers — to the church, which collects and redistributes commodities to the community. The leaders tell church members that they must obtain their food and household goods only through the church, the indictment alleges.
Jeffs is scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon in federal court in St. George.
mmcfall@sltrib.com
Twitter: @MikeyPanda
| Tribune file photo
Seth Steed Jeffs
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