PHOENIX -- This week's conviction in Utah of a polygamous sect leader doesn't erase a problem prosecutors have faced in their crackdown on plural marriages involving underage girls in northern Arizona -- victims who are reluctant to testify in court.
The problem has surfaced in cases against eight men from Colorado City, Arizona, but is expected to be even more formidable in the prosecution of sect leader Warren Jeffs.
Jeffs has been accused of arranging marriages between underage girls and older men.
In Arizona, Jeffs faces four felony charges involving marriages between two teenage girls and older men in a 2005 case. He also is charged as an accomplice with four counts of incest and four counts of sexual contact with a minor.
Both prosecutions have been on hold pending Jeffs' trial in Utah, which ended Tuesday with a conviction.
People are also reading…
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard says Jeffs' status as a church leader makes him the hardest defendant to prosecute in all the Colorado City cases.
He says Mohave County prosecutors found witnesses who were more willing to testify against their arranged husbands than Jeffs.
Historic bank vault now new Tucson speakeasy
