Fugitive FLDS church leader Lyle Jeffs arrested in South Dakota
06/15/2017 9:48 am PDT
via KSTU:
SALT LAKE CITY -- (KSTU) -- Fugitive Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Lyle Jeffs has been arrested in South Dakota, the FBI confirmed to FOX 13.
Jeffs is in the Minnehaha County Jail in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on a U.S. Marshals hold. No other details surrounding his arrest were immediately released.
The FBI is expected will hold a news conference in Salt Lake City on Jeffs' arrest this morning.
The bishop in the Fundamentalist LDS Church has been on the run for nearly a year, after he escaped from home confinement while awaiting trial on food stamp fraud charges. FOX 13 first reported last year the FBI believes he used olive oil to slip out of a GPS monitoring device.
Since then, the FBI elevated Jeffs to its "Most Wanted" list with a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Jeffs is among 11 people initially charged in a massive food stamp fraud scheme in the FLDS strongholds of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. Plea deals were offered to all (charges were dismissed against one). Federal prosecutors have told FOX 13 they will offer no deals to Jeffs.
Lyle Jeffs is the brother of imprisoned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sex assault related to underage "marriages."
The FLDS Church has maintained a compound in South Dakota, near the tiny town of Pringle. FOX 13 visited it last year. It features a guard tower, and has a massive footprint for a development that some have speculated could be the site of a new temple.
FULL STORY: Fugitive FLDS church leader Lyle Jeffs arrested in South Dakota - KSTU