OUTBURST

Jeffs Defends Polygamy at Trial

Reads a statement "from God."

Warren Jeffs read a statement allegedly from God defending polygamy Friday at his sexual-assault trial. Jeffs, acting as his own lawyer, threatened “sickness and death” on the trial’s participants in an hourlong outburst in which he also insisted that Texas authorities who raided his compound in 2008 had violated his religious freedom. Jeffs, a leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been charged with sexually assaulting two young girls and forcing them into a “spiritual marriage.” He fired his defense team at the start of the trial Thursday, while prosecutors said they had audiotape of a sexual encounter between Jeffs and a 12-year-old girl.