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Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is expected to appear before a San Angelo, Texas, judge on Wednesday for a pre-trial hearing.
- Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is expected to appear before a San Angelo, Texas, judge on Wednesday for a pre-trial hearing.
At his last appearance on December 29, Jeffs -- who is charged with bigamy and sexual assault -- said he would have a lawyer to represent him by Wednesday.
Jeffs, who calls himself a prophet, spoke sparingly at the arraignment, but he told the judge he expected to have an attorney by the Wednesday hearing, court officials said.
Jeffs, 55, leads the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the FLDS. The charges stem from an alleged spiritual marriage to a 12-year-old girl.
Jeffs' Nevada-based attorney, Richard Wright, had sought to delay the trial, which is to begin January 24. But Judge Barbara Walther denied that request, saying the church leader has long known about the charges in Texas and had plenty of time to seek counsel.
No defense attorney attended last week's arraignment.
The sect leader was extradited from Utah and faces charges in Tom Green County.
Prosecutors filed the charges two years ago, after authorities raided the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, and removed more than 400 children. At the time, authorities said they feared the children were sexually abused.
Most of the children were returned to their families at the ranch, but some men were charged with sexual abuse.
The 10,000-member FLDS splintered from the Mormon church over polygamy, which the mainstream church renounced a century ago. The FLDS openly practices polygamy at the Texas ranch and in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona border -- Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.
Critics of the FLDS say underage girls are forced into "spiritual" plural marriages with older men and are sexually abused. Sect members have denied sexual abuse.
Jeffs was convicted in Utah in a case stemming from the marriage of an underage girl to her cousin, but that conviction was overturned in 2007.
In June, a judge in Arizona dismissed similar charges against Jeffs at the request of prosecutors, who cited the "much more serious charges" in Texas. Jeffs had been charged in Arizona with four counts of being an accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor.
