Lawyer for FLDS teen alleges threat

SAN ANGELO, Texas, June 24 (UPI) -- A Texas lawyer representing the teenage daughter of jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs claims she has received death threats.

Natalie Malonis told the Deseret Morning News the threats began last week when she asked a court to keep a leader in the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter-Day Saints away from her client.

She was to have an armed guard for a hearing Tuesday on whether her client must testify before a grand jury.

"I've been getting death threats and I am being provided a security detail," she said. "That was not even at my request. Law enforcement recognized the need for it."

Teresa Jeffs, 16, has been trying to fire Maronis, who was appointed by a Texas court to represent her.

"My attorney is going against my wishes," she wrote in an e-mail to Malonis. "Maybe you need a restraining order that you can absolutely have nothing to do with me and you have to stay 1,000 feet away from me! What do you think of that?"

Teresa Jeffs has been subpoenaed to testify before a Texas grand jury investigating allegations of sexual abuse of teenage girls at the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas.