SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The polygamous sect leader caught recently after a year on the run for a year is probably competent to stand trial, but needs a neurological exam to determine if two late 1990s accidents left him with memory loss and possible brain injuries, his attorney said Thursday.
Jurors need to know if Lyle Jeffs has memory loss if he decides to testify at his trial on charges that he oversaw a massive food stamp fraud scheme while leading the Mormon offshoot sect in a small community on the Utah-Arizona border, said attorney Kathryn Nester. She spoke during a hearing that followed her request to delay Jeffs’ trial scheduled for Sept. 18 until early next year.
But federal prosecutor Robert Lund questioned why Jeffs’ legal team never mentioned the possible health problems last year after he was arrested in February 2016. Jeffs had been placed under home detention but became a fugitive after he slipped off an ankle monitoring device on June 18, 2016 and went on the run. He was caught in South Dakota on June 14 after two pawn shop workers spotted him and called police.
Lund in arguing against the trial delay said authorities interviewed several witnesses who never questioned Jeffs’ ability to run the alleged scheme in which sect members are accused of breaking the law by donating products purchased with food stamps to a communal storehouse while diverting funds to front companies to pay for a tractor, a truck and other items. Sect leaders lived lavishly while low-ranking followers suffered, authorities have said.
U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart asked Nester why the issue of the brain injuries did not come up last year and if she had observed any signs of impairment during her interactions with Jeffs before he became a fugitive.