TX Polygamist sect leader pleads not guilty

SAN ANGELO, TX The 55-year-old is scheduled to stand trial for aggravated sexual assault Jan. 24 and said during a pretrial hearing Wednesday that he intends to hire a Texas attorney but has yet to formally do so. Separate trials on other charges will come later.

Jeffs sat and said nothing as prosecutors read charges that he had sex with a girl younger than 17.

He was ordered to stand and simply glanced down as charges alleging sex with a girl younger than 15 and bigamy were read.

Jeffs is the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.