Utah awaits Texas hearing on YFZ evidence

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Utah prosecutors say their ability to press charges against a Texas polygamist sect will depend on results of a legal battle over search warrants involved.

An April 3 raid on the YFZ Ranch in Texas has resulted in hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence. But defense attorneys argue that a telephone call alleging abuse of hundreds of children at the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints stockade was illegally based on a hoax. A Texas judge has set an Oct. 1 hearing, the Deseret News reported Tuesday.

"We're certainly interested, and we will follow up on that stuff," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in an interview with the Deseret News. "If we're not allowed to keep that evidence or use it in criminal prosecutions, then we're back to square one."

Utah has been investigating the FLDS Church and its leader Warren Jeffs for some time. But much of the case will depend on availability of the YFZ evidence.

"As far as all the financial documents, it's all part of that evidence," Shurtleff told the Deseret News. "Our desires to investigate the white collar stuff, the RICO and money laundering, if we can't get that evidence, then we're nowhere."