Convicted Polygamist May Have Broken Phone Rules
HOUSTON (AP) - Texas prison officials are investigating whether convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs violated his inmate telephone privileges with a couple of calls to a relative on Christmas Day that may have been broadcast to an audience listening in.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says officials are trying to determine if Jeffs preached a sermon to his congregation over a speaker phone. That would be a violation of prison phone policy.
Clark says he doesn't know how prison officials became aware of a possible violation except to note that all calls made on through the agency's offender phone system are monitored and recorded.
Jeffs is serving life at the Powledge Unit in East Texas. He was convicted in August of sexually assaulting two of his underage brides.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
