A lawsuit against polygamous leader Warren Jeffs is taking aim at the group's longtime Utah law firm, arguing attorneys created a veneer of legality that helped leaders perpetuate abuses like child labor and underage marriage.
The firm Snow, Christensen and Martineau denied the allegations in scathing terms Thursday, saying lawyers like Rod Parker were simply doing their jobs and can't be held responsible for anything Jeffs did.
The firm "is no more responsible for Warren Jeffs' actions than the doctor who kept him healthy," defense attorneys wrote in court documents.
But the lawsuit claims attorneys helped Jeffs devise legal strategies for tightening his control over the group after he took over leadership from his father in the late 1990s. Jeffs used that power to marry and sexually assault underage girls as well as arrange other underage marriages, the suit says
Jeffs is serving a life prison sentence after being convicted of sexually assaulting girls he considered wives. He no longer has a lawyer, and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints doesn't have a phone number to contact for comment.
The lawsuit filed by more than 20 former FLDS members says the law firm helped burnish the group's credentials as a maligned religious group as cover for the abuses.