Traffic stop ends search for notorious polygamist

LAS VEGAS — The worldwide manhunt for polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, part of a state and federal crackdown on child-sexual abuse and underage marriage among his followers, ended when the self-proclaimed prophet was arrested north of Las Vegas during a routine traffic stop, police said Tuesday.

Jeffs, 50, described as potentially "armed and dangerous" on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, had long said he would never be taken alive. But he surrendered quietly late Monday. He was unarmed, police said.

The leader of the 10,000-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) is wanted in Utah and Arizona for allegedly arranging underage marriages, rape and sexual assault. He is said to have at least 40 wives and nearly 60 children. The secretive sect broke away from the Mormon church a century ago.

Church dissidents say that underage marriages — some involving girls as young as 13 — escalated into the hundreds under his leadership, and that he broke apart families by casting out married men and reassigning their wives and children to others.

"This arrest will crack his mystique and provide the opportunity for the entire story to be told in a court of law before a judge and jury," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said.

"These charges are not about the FLDS church or polygamy. No one is above the law. Mr. Jeffs will be treated like any other defendant."

In the past year, Jeffs' ability to elude the law, together with the hit HBO series "Big Love" — loosely modeled on the sect he heads — and a national debate over the definition of marriage, dramatically raised the profile of polygamy in the United States.

Nine days before his arrest, about 300 children of polygamous relationships rallied in downtown Salt Lake City in a rare public defense of "plural marriage."

Most of the FLDS church's members live in Hildale, Utah, and adjoining Colorado City, Ariz., but authorities have said they believe Jeffs had "safe houses" in four other states — including Nevada — and Canada.

Jeffs' vehicle was stopped on Interstate 15 for having a temporary Colorado license tag that wasn't easily readable, FBI and Nevada Highway Patrol officials said.

John Lewis, special agent in charge of the FBI Phoenix division, said the trooper became suspicious when Jeffs identified himself as John Findley, using a contact-lens receipt from Florida as identification.

"That would commonly say to the average police officer that there is something wrong, so I am going to continue to probe just a little bit," Lewis said.

Jeffs confirmed his identity to an FBI agent who was called to the scene. He would not tell investigators where he had been hiding, Lewis said.

No weapons were found, but the 2007 red Cadillac Escalade he was riding in was filled with items including three wigs, 15 cellphones, $54,000 in cash, $10,000 in gift cards, a GPS device, a police scanner and numerous unopened envelopes that were thought to contain more cash, Lewis said.

Jeffs was being held at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas on a federal warrant for flight to avoid prosecution.

The main charges against Jeffs were pending by the states of Arizona and Utah, and it had not been decided in which state Jeffs would face the initial charges, including two counts of rape as an accomplice in Utah. He faces widespread sexual-abuse and civil-rights violations. Some of the counts are punishable by terms up to life in prison.

Jeffs also has been accused of repeatedly raping his nephew, Brent Jeffs, who was then 5 years old, in Utah. Now 23, Brent Jeffs filed a lawsuit in 2004, saying his uncle is believed to have molested other children.

The two people traveling with Jeffs, a wife, Naomi Jeffs, and a brother, Isaac Steed Jeffs, both 32, were released and will not be charged, FBI agent Steven Martinez said.

Jeffs had been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list since May, with a $100,000 reward offered for information leading to his capture.

The FLDS church split from the mainstream Mormon church when the Mormons disavowed polygamy more than 100 years ago. Warren Jeffs took over the renegade sect in 2002 after the death of his father, Rulon Jeffs, 98, who was said to have had 65 children by several women. Warren Jeffs took nearly all his father's widows as his own wives.

Church members are taught they cannot reach the highest levels of heaven without at least three wives. Women, or often girls, are "gifted" to men by the prophet, who is seen as revealing God's plan.

Jeffs has been called a dangerous extremist by those familiar with his church. Church dissidents said that while the sect has long practiced the custom of arranged marriages, young girls were rarely married off until he came to power.

People expelled from the community said young men were sent away to avoid competition for brides. Older men were cast out for alleged disobedience and their wives and children were reassigned by Jeffs to new husbands and fathers, the former members said.

"If this will bring an end to that, that will be a good thing," said Ward Jeffs, an older half-brother of Warren.

The fundamentalist sect is notoriously secretive, but details about Rulon and Warren Jeffs' lifestyle emerged in 1999, when they sold a seven-acre, $1.9 million walled compound in Sandy, Utah, where they had lived with their wives and children since the early 1980s.

Women's bedrooms in Rulon Jeffs' main house were decorated with wallpaper saying, "Keep Sweet No Matter What." Their doors were marked with red, yellow or green tags, depending on whether they were ovulating. And there were signs of other practices shocking to Mormons: Apparently, they drank coffee and berry wine.

Loraine Sundquist, who bought the compound and is developing it into luxury condominiums, said Tuesday that she remembers Jeffs as "quiet and soft-spoken," and all of his associates as friendly and polite.

The number of Americans who practice polygamy is unclear. A joint report by the attorneys general of Utah and Arizona put the figure at 20,000 to 40,000 people. Principle Voices, a pro-polygamy group, said there are 37,000 Fundamentalist Mormons in the Western United States, most of whom "profess a belief in polygamy but are not currently practicing it."

Material from The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press is included in this report.