SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former polygamous sect leader was sentenced Wednesday to nearly five years in prison for his role in carrying out an elaborate food stamp fraud scheme and for escaping home confinement while awaiting trial.
The sentencing of Lyle Jeffs closes the book on a major government bust that took several years to investigate, culminating in February 2016 with fraud and money laundering charges against him and 10 other group members.
Jeffs, a lifelong member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was accused of being the ringleader of a scheme that diverted some $11 million in food-stamp benefits to a communal storehouse and front companies over several years.
U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart said during a hearing in Salt Lake City that Jeffs deserved the 57-month prison sentence because his behavior showed he doesn’t respect U.S. laws and puts his allegiance to his brother and the sect’s imprisoned prophet, Warren Jeffs, above everything else.
Stewart said Lyle Jeffs’ religious beliefs provide context for his decision to “blindly” follow his brother’s orders, but don’t justify the fact that he “cheated” taxpayers out of government funds.
“Mr. Jeffs is an adult. He knows right from wrong,” Stewart said.
Jeffs, 57, spoke briefly and said he accepted responsibility for his mistakes and that he erred in not properly researching food stamp fraud laws. He was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution. He had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit benefits fraud and failure to appear.
“I do your honor humbly and respectfully say that I acknowledge my mistakes and decision-making,” said Jeffs, his hands and ankles shackled. “I do humbly accept my responsibly for my actions. I don’t blame anyone.”
The cases against the 10 other defendants ended in plea deals without prison time or with dismissed charges, but prosecutors made Jeffs their top priority from the outset.
They dug in even more against him after he became a fugitive in June 2016 after he slipped off an ankle monitoring device while out on supervised release. The FBI put up a $50,000 reward. He was caught in South Dakota a year later after pawn shop workers spotted him and called police.
Prosecutor Robert Lund said he hopes the sentence sends a strong message to Jeffs and other sect leaders that a “culture of corruption” in recent years won’t be tolerated. He said Jeffs and other leaders lived and ate well while lower-level group members suffered, using businesses and special instructions to members to try and conceal the scheme.
“This case cries out for a message to that community,” Lund said. “They must obey the law.”
Lund added about Jeffs: “There is no training, no treatment for what ails the defendant.”
The food stamp investigation was one of several government crackdowns on the group in recent years that has weakened the sect and created a leadership void in its home base in the sister cities of Hildale and Colorado City, Arizona.
The town governments and the police are being watched closely by court-appointed monitors after a jury found them guilty of civil rights violations. Government-ordered evictions of sect families from nearly 150 homes has forced many to seek refuge in trailers around the communities or in different cities across the West.
Last month, the mayor’s office and three council seats in Hildale that had always been controlled by FLDS members were taken over by former sect members.
Warren Jeffs is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting girls he considered wives.
Lyle Jeffs’ attorney Kathryn Nester said the scheme wasn’t malicious but meant to ensure everyone in the group had food to eat as part of the group’s religious beliefs in communal living. She said her client was serving his faith just as he’s done his entire life.
“His salvation was on the line like everybody else’s,” Nester said.
She said Lyle Jeffs has already suffered tremendously because he’s been banned from the sect by Warren Jeffs. That means he’s lost his family, his job and his faith.
“If you’re looking to humble him, I think we’re there,” Nester said.
Nester tried to get a more lenient sentence by telling the Judge Stewart that a “perfect storm” of factors led her client and the group to share the food stamps and that it won’t ever happen again.
Stewart said he’s not so sure based on letters sent in by Jeffs’ friends who were trying to vouch for his character. He said several of them referred to the charges as religious persecution, leading him to believe they still don’t understand the seriousness of the crime.
“That troubles me because it suggests it could happen again,” Stewart said. “The deterrent effect has not been felt by some members of the community.”
Written by BRADY McCOMBS, Associated Press
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
FLDS Lyle Jeffs got a slap on the wrist…….from a LDS Judge.
It’s about what you should expect. He’ll serve a few weeks, then be released on probation/parole.
At least he didn’t have to take food stamp classes. Humbled? Cry me a river…
Rob Lund is a pos left over from the Obama team, so he needs to be fired, and The cases against the 10 other defendants ended in plea deals without prison time or with dismissed charges, but prosecutors made Jeffs their top priority from the outset? BS, they all need to be paying back “we the US taxpayer” how the heck does a $1 million fine equate to the $12 Million stolen from the US taxpayer? “This closes the Book”? Nope, not by a damn bit, that book is wide open and this is not going away
Just another fine example of the separation of LDS and State he got less than a slap on the wrist
It’s 12:20 pm. Did you have to set your alarm to wake up and make this comment?