Polygamist leader convicted of sex charges in arranged marriage

The leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group was convicted today of being an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin. Warren Jeffs, 51, could get life in prison after a trial that threw a spotlight on a renegade community along the Arizona-Utah line where as many as 10,000 of Jeffs' followers practice plural marriage and revere him as a mighty prophet with dominion over their salvation....The mainstream Mormon Church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, renounced polygamy more than a century ago, excommunicates members who engage in the practice, and disavows any connection to the FLDS church. Jeffs is also charged in Arizona with being an accomplice to both incest and sexual misconduct with a minor for arranging marriages between two underage girls and relatives of theirs. In addition, Jeffs is under federal indictment in Utah on charges of fleeing to avoid prosecution. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-jeffs0925,0,301115.story