Source: Chron.com

A lawyer for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs said Friday that he plans to fight the use of any evidence seized during a raid on the sect’s Texas ranch at Jeffs’ trial in Arizona.

Attorney Mike Piccarreta told a judge at a court hearing in Kingman that he will challenge the search because it was based on a call that Texas authorities should have known was a hoax.

“They proceeded to search the premises nevertheless,” Piccarreta said in an interview after the hearing. “And there are also a whole assortment of constitutional errors by the Texas authorities and we intend to raise each and every one of them.

“I believe the search is illegal and unconstitutional, even by Texas standards.”

The main focus of Friday’s hearing in Arizona was a defense effort to have the case against Jeffs sent back to a grand jury for reconsideration. Piccarreta argues that Jeffs was denied a fair, impartial and unbiased grand jury, and that the prosecution presented false or misleading evidence to the grand jury.

Mohave County Judge Steven Conn said he’ll rule on that next week.

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Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States