Supreme Hypocrisy

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Utah Supreme Court issued its opinion in the UEP Trust case. Attorneys for the FLDS argued that Judge Desleaze Lintbag had acted improperly when she reformed (with help from the Hooligans) the FLDS trust (she gutted the trust's religious intents and turned it into an unrecognizable secular trust). Rather than tackling this complaint in substance, the Court chose to dodge the issue and utilize the excuse offered to it by the State's lawyers. The excuse was that, by virtue of the assertion that the FLDS had allegedly waited "too long" to challenge the trust reformation, a legal doctrine known as "Laches" went into effect (let us not forget that on every occasion when an FLDS member appeared in a courtroom to protest the travesty, his family was besieged or he was whisked off to months of unlawful detention in a Florence, Arizona, prison [for not knowing the whereabouts of Warren Jeffs]). Laches says that you need to bring your case in a timely manner, or else a lot of water will flow under the proverbial bridge, and it can eventually become too difficult of harmful for the Court to unravel or rewind all of the undesirable consequences of the delay. In my view, the FLDS need to challenge this thinking because it appears to be a lame excuse when the ongoing and potential harm to a community is so far-reaching and devastating (not-to-mention mean spirited).

The State's office of the Attorney General is the keeper of the legal mandate, the paragon of true legal principles - the guardian of the precious rights of the citizens. So here is the State's legal theory:

"When you have a complaint against a party, you must address it expeditiously. You have to bring the matter before the court. You have to give the other party its fair day in court. You have to bring your case swiftly. You have to state what your complaint is and argue it in a timely manner. If you don't have a legitimate case, you have to fess up and acknowledge it openly. If you have witnesses who have lied and fabricated testimony, you have to admit it and accept defeat. You can't just drag your heels indefinitely and hope that some sympathetic court will entertain your arguments years down the road. You have to seek a 'speedy trial'."

So here are the words of the State's deputy AG, Craig Barlow:

“It is not my decision about retrial, that is Mr. Belnap’s in Washington County and I wouldn’t comment until a final decision has been made and none has.”

“We do not believe that a retrial is necessary before he can be extradited. No.”

“The timing [of any retrial, if there is one] is something that is going to be decided probably by Judge Christiansen and possibly Judge Shumate. Our position is pendency of the Utah charges on potential retrial are not a legal bar to extradition to Texas on the current charges filed there.”

“We don’t need him here right now and we think the great state of Texas ought to have an opportunity to try Mr. Jeffs for the crimes he has been alleged to have committed in Texas.”

Let me translate:

"We hate Warren Jeffs. The fact that his conviction was overturned was the most crushing defeat in Utah's legal history. We must find a way to get this guy. We want to let Texas get its bloodthirsty teeth into him. We want to keep him behind bars at all costs. We know we cannot ever re-try him because the charges are bogus and our witnesses perjured their brains out. We just want to pretend that we sincerely want another "crack" at him so that we can drag things out and let our constituents think that we will successfully hang these allegations over his head for years and years - let's say 75 years, after Texas is all done with him."

Laches-Schmaches, Pendency-Schmendency !!!!!

Am I the only one who sees the hypocrisy?