Lyle Jeffs, a leader of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was arrested without incident Wednesday night in South Dakota after being on the lam for close to a year.
Jeffs, 57, was one of 11 members of the Mormon offshoot sect charged last year with felony conspiracy to defraud the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and felony conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors say the men demanded that FLDS members hand over their SNAP cards, or use them at stores controlled by the FLDS so the benefits could be converted to cash. A tipster led police to a marina in Yankton, South Dakota, where Jeffs was living out of a Ford F-150 truck, the FBI said. Earlier this week, Jeffs came into a local pawn shop and made $37 by pawning two pairs of pliers; the owner told The Associated Press that Jeffs showed his ID, went by the name Jeffs Lyle Steed, and appeared to be nervous and "acting like a freak."
Jeffs, who is being held without bond and will be sent back to Utah, is the younger brother of the FLDS's imprisoned president, Warren Jeffs, who was once on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. Warren Jeffs was also arrested while on the run, and later convicted of sexually abusing two girls he married as plural wives. He is serving a sentence of life plus 20 years in prison.
-
Quiz of The Week: 4 – 10 OctoberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
Lee Miller at the Tate: a ‘sexy yet devastating’ showThe Week Recommends The ‘revelatory’ exhibition tells the photographer’s story ‘through her own impeccable eye’
-
The Week Unwrapped: Who had the last laugh in Riyadh?Podcast Plus are imported eggs undermining animal welfare? And what can we do about AI deepfakes?
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bailSpeed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambushSpeed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
-
Weinstein convicted of sex crime in retrialSpeed Read The New York jury delivered a mixed and partial verdict at the disgraced Hollywood producer's retrial
-
'King of the Hill' actor shot dead outside homespeed read Jonathan Joss was fatally shot by a neighbor who was 'yelling violent homophobic slurs,' says his husband
