A Utah federal judge has signed an emergency release allowing a convicted bank robber, who said he was threatened by a radical religious sect, to visit his pregnant, hospitalized wife in Arizona.

Judge Bruce Jenkins' order says James Vern Hatch's wife is hospitalized at the Maricopa County Hospital in Phoenix, and her physician has diagnosed her condition as serious and that of her unborn child as critical.The physician also believes Hatch's "presence is very important, relative to the state of the mind of his wife," the order said.

Hatch, 33, Manti, faces sentencing Nov. 20 on his conviction last month in the June 13 theft of $2,500 from the Bank of American Fork. The same jury that convicted Hatch, acquitted his wife, Darlene, of aiding and abetting her husband.

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