This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Less than three weeks before he is scheduled to go to trial in West Texas, polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs has fired his defense attorney.
Prominent Fort Worth attorney Jeff Kearney will be replaced with Emily Munoz Detoto, of Houston, according to documents filed Thursday in Schleicher County court.
It is not the first time Jeffs has fired a lawyer in Texas. He hired Austin attorney Gerry Morris in January, only to cut him loose hours later.
In a motion to withdraw, Kearney wrote he was dismissed on Wednesday, when an unnamed Jeffs representative called him. Jeffs "wished to immediately terminate [his] services," documents state. Kearney was told to immediately turn all discovery and files in the case over to Detoto. The court has not yet ruled on the motion.
Detoto, who calls herself a "Texas warrior lawyer" on her website, filed notice of appearance as co-counsel Friday. The criminal defense attorney has appeared on criminal justice TV shows and, in 2003, helped represent a woman charged with running over her cheating husband with a car.
Jeffs, 55, is charged with sexual assault and bigamy connected with two alleged underage spiritual marriages, one to a 12-year-old girl and the other to a girl under the age of 17.
His trial is scheduled to begin on July 25. It was not immediately known if the switch in attorneys might push back that date. No requests to reschedule the trial were filed Thursday, and state District Judge Barbara Walther is on vacation, a court clerk said. Kearney did not return a call for comment.
Detoto has already requested another run at replacing Walther, arguing again that the judge is biased against members of Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Another judge refused to replace Walther last month, rejecting Kearney's arguments that her body language influenced jurors in other FLDS cases.
In a motion for re-hearing filed Friday, Detoto added new arguments, saying Walther's approval of the search warrant that led to a massive 2008 raid on the group's Yearning for Zion Ranch meant the judge had already "in essence, made a judgment," on allegations of abuse in phone calls from a supposed 16-year-old underage plural wife. Those calls were later found to be a hoax.
Kearney had represented Jeffs since late January. When he took the case, Kearney asked Walther for more time to sort through the "awesome" amount of evidence, which he said could practically fill the courtroom if stacked floor-to-ceiling. Walther was initially sympathetic, but in June stuck to the schedule and ruled the trial would go forward later this month.
Texas authorities seized some 1.7 billion pages of evidence during the massive raid on the remote Eldorado, Texas, ranch. More than 400 children were also taken from their parents, though they were later returned.
Prosecutors used the evidence to file charges, including sexual assault and bigamy, against 12 FLDS men. To date, seven have been found guilty or pleaded no contest; five are awaiting trial.
Jeffs was extradited from Utah in late November after the Utah Supreme Court overturned his conviction on accomplice to rape charges.
Twitter: @lwhitehurst