Judge turns down Jeffs' bid for new trial

ST. GEORGE, Utah, April 24 (UPI) -- A judge in Utah Thursday refused to grant polygamist leader Warren Jeffs' motion for a new trial.

Jeffs, now awaiting trial in Arizona on similar charges, was convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice. Prosecutors said that he forced a 14-year-old girl into a marriage with her cousin.

Fifth District Judge James Shumate rejected arguments by Jeffs' lawyers that the trial was full of "errors and improprieties," the Deseret Morning News reported. On Wednesday, he refused to delay a hearing on another issue, a motion by Jeffs' lawyers to question jurors on whether they reached verdicts on some counts before a juror was dismissed for failing to disclose past sexual abuse.

Shumate's ruling opens the way for an appeal. Jeffs' lawyers said they plan to file within 30 days.

Jeffs is the head of the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter-Day Saints, a group that returned to the Mormons' 19th-century approval of polygamy. Texas authorities recently raided the group's Yearning For Zion ranch, removing hundreds of children.