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	Judge Drops Four Charges against Sect Leader Jeffs Associated Press, carried in Tucson Citizen June 5, 2008 http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/87330.php KINGMAN - An Arizona judge dropped four of eight charges against polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs on Wednesday, saying a state incest law does not apply to the arranged marriages of two teenage girls and their older male relatives. Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn ruled that the Arizona law only applies if both participants in the sexual activity are older than 18, and that the law does not apply to half cousins. In both of the marriages Jeffs is accused of arranging, the girls were younger than 18 and were their husbands' half cousins. Neither the prosecution nor the defense in the case could be reached for comment. In his ruling, Conn wrote that Arizona's incest law initially was enacted without reference to the ages of participants. In 1985, it was amended to apply only to people who were 15 years or older, and in 1998, it was changed to its present form, applying only to those 18 or older. He wrote the Arizona law is both clear and unambiguous, leaving no room for interpretation. Jeffs is still charged in Arizona as an accomplice with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor stemming from the marriages of the two girls. Jeffs, 52, was named president, or prophet, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 2002. Members live in the twin border towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. The mainstream Mormon church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, renounced polygamy more than a century ago, excommunicates members who engage in the practice and disavows any connection with the FLDS church. Jeffs was convicted last year in Utah of rape as an accomplice in the arranged marriage of a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. He was sentenced to two terms of five years to life in prison. Jeffs remains jailed in Kingman as he awaits his Arizona trial. No date has been set.
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