Polygamist leader seeks new trial

SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, imprisoned as an accomplice in the rape of a teenage congregation member, is asking a Utah judge for a new trial.

Attorneys for the 52-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist LDS Church filed a motion for a new trial Tuesday in 5th District Court in Salt Lake City. Convicted in September, Jeffs was sentenced last month to two consecutive terms of five years to life in the Utah State Prison.

According to the motion, a new trial is warranted because "errors and improprieties occurred during the trial" that affected Jeffs' rights to due process and a fair trial, The Deseret Morning News reported Wednesday.

The court filing did not give specifics, but during the final hours of jury deliberation, Judge James Shumate released a female juror from the panel and replaced her with an alternate juror. At the time, the judge said there had been "an event" with the juror who was replaced, the newspaper reported.

The jury found Jeffs guilty of two counts of accomplice to rape for his role in the 2001 marriage of 14-year-old Elissa Wall to her 19-year-old cousin.