Has Warren Jeffs turned his trial into a sermon on polygamy?
Warren Jeffs, the polygamist leader charged with sexually assaulting two underage girls, broke his silence at the trial with an hour-long invective Friday.
In this courtroom sketch, polygamist religious leader Warren Jeffs (l.) and 51st District Court Judge Barbara Walther (r.) are shown in court during Day 2 of Jeffs's sexual-assault trial Friday in San Angelo, Texas.
Brigitte Woosley/AP
In a single dramatic hour Friday, the course of the San Angelo, Texas, trial against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs might have changed course.
With a rambling outburst that included a malediction against the prosecutors, a defense of polygamy, and direct quotes from "the Lord God," Jeffs broke his prolonged silence in the trial, then continued to interrupt proceedings throughout the rest of the day.
The outbursts could merely be a continuation of Mr. Jeffs's apparent legal tactic: delay. But they also have also effectively turned the courtroom into a pulpit for the leader of the breakaway Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is now representing himself in the proceedings.
"No longer is it really a trial. He just wanted an occasion to give a sermon," Laurie Levenson, professor at the Loyola Law School, told CBS News.
