One of fugitive Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs' brothers is being held in a federal prison in Arizona for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury.
Leroy Jeffs is among five FLDS men now sitting in a private prison in Florence, Ariz., on contempt of court charges. He is one of Warren Jeffs' older brothers and was once the FLDS Church's "presiding patriarch."
"I know that he's been very close to Warren," ex-FLDS Church member Richard Holm said Saturday. "Leroy and Warren were what I considered cohorts and co-conspirators in the takeover of the Church."
Holm said Leroy Jeffs was an accountant who had access to information about the FLDS Church's inner workings.
Leroy Jeffs' half-brother Ward visited him in prison last month.
"I appealed to him to step up and do the right thing and help other people," Ward Jeffs said. "To which he responded, 'I have nothing to say.' He thinks he's still guarding the security of a man who booted him and took his family away."
The Deseret Morning News reported in April that a federal grand jury was believed to be looking into the FLDS Church and its fugitive polygamist leader. FBI agents have been serving subpoenas on a number of members of the polygamous church based in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz. Holm said he has heard subpoenas were still being served on high-ranking members of the church.
Earlier this month, Warren Jeffs' younger brother Seth Jeffs was reportedly served with a grand jury subpoena after he was sentenced in a Denver federal court. Seth Jeffs pleaded guilty to helping keep his brother on the run from authorities. It is unknown if he has agreed to testify, but refusal could find him in violation of his probation.
Samuel K. Allred and Leroy B. Timpson, who have ties to FLDS businesses, were booked into the prison earlier this month on contempt-of-court charges for refusing to talk.
Mica Barlow, a police officer in Hildale and Colorado City, is also being jailed. So is James Allred, the assistant postmaster in the border towns. Both men have refused to testify.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona has declined to comment on the investigation, citing the secret nature of grand jury investigations.
Warren Jeffs is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. He is facing charges in Utah and Arizona, accusing him of forcing teenage girls into polygamous marriages with older men. Federal prosecutors have charged him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. A $100,000 bounty is out for information leading to his arrest.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
Contributing: The Associated Press