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An attorney for polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is facing a felony drug charge, according to court records.
Emily Munoz Detoto was charged with possession of a controlled substance on June 20 in Harris County, Texas, where her Houston law practice is based, according to court records. An arraignment in the case is scheduled for Sept. 30.
Neither Detoto nor her attorney, George McCall Secrest, have responded to calls for comment.
Detoto identified herself as Jeffs' attorney when she spoke to the media, including the Associated Press, on Monday after the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was hospitalized in critical condition Sunday night. Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month for sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, whom he took as plural wives.
Detoto, 39, first appeared as an attorney for Jeffs on July 1, less than two weeks after her possession charge was filed and shortly before Jeffs fired Fort Worth attorney Jeff Kearney. Detoto represented Jeffs in a second attempt to have state District Judge Barbara Walther recused on claims of bias before Jeffs' trial. Detoto was unsuccessful and Walther presided over the trial, which began in late July.
Shortly after jury selection, though, Jeffs fired his team of seven attorneys, including Detoto, and decided to represent himself. But Walther refused to release the lawyers, ordering them to instead stay on as stand-by attorneys. Lead attorney Deric Walpole remained in the courtroom throughout the proceedings, which lasted just over two weeks, and Detoto also appeared frequently.
Detoto, along with Walpole and attorney Jed Silverman, were released at the end of the trial. But as of Thursday, Detoto remained an attorney of record Jeffs' upcoming bigamy trial, a court clerk confirmed.
Jeffs has been hospitalized with unspecified medical problems following a fast. Thursday, his condition was upgraded to stable and he was moved out of intensive care and into a regular bed at a prison hospital, a prison spokesman said. It wasn't immediately clear when he might be released.
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