Warren Jeffs’ Daughter Loses Bid to Dump Appointed Lawyer
A Texas judge has refused a request by the daughter of jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs to oust her court-appointed lawyer.
The teen, 17-year-old Teresa Jeffs, had claimed her lawyer was going against her wishes by preventing her from having contact with her father or visiting the Yearning for Zion Ranch, the Deseret News reports. Judge Barbara Walther refused to order the ouster of lawyer Natalie Malonis last week after hearing arguments or testimony from eight lawyers and questioning the girl in chambers, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times.
Ken Isenberg, a lawyer hired by the FLDS church, had argued that the attorney-client relationship was broken. “Like a divorce, sometimes they need to go their separate ways,” he said. But Malonis had contended the sect was pressuring Jeffs and contributing to the breakdown of their relationship.
Malonis had filed a motion seeking her own ouster after Isenberg and two other lawyers had sought her removal, the Standard-Times story says. Then Malonis argued against her own motion and won—the argument, not the motion.
