By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 11/06/2009 03:58:37 PM MST

Eldorado, Texas - Tempers flared in a courtroom here as attorneys contested evidence repeatedly during the criminal trial of FLDS member Raymond Merril Jessop -- ending in a defense attorney asking a Texas judge to declare a mistrial late Monday.

Attorney Mark Stevens argued that prosecutor Eric Nichols was acting in "bad faith" by ignoring an agreed upon protocol for discussing disputed evidence before it was introduced in open court. Instead, Stevens said, Nichols was forcing him to make objections that resulted in the jury being excused from the courtroom a half dozen times Monday.

"There is no telling what they think of me, let alone Mr. Jessop," Stevens said of the jury, adding that Nichols was "intentionally trying to goad us into asking for a mistrial."

Fifty-first District Judge Barbara Walther denied the motion, but called a halt to the hearing just before 7 p.m. to give attorneys time to cool off. She dismissed the jury until 1:30 p.m. Tuesday but attorneys will return in the morning to deal with evidence disputes, something Stevens had asked Walther to do on Friday to avoid continual disruptions that might be prejudicial to his client.

Nine witnesses, mostly law enforcement officers, testified before the hearing adjourned. Much of that testimony dealt with descriptions of evidence taken during an April 2008 investigation at the Yearning For Zion Ranch. That evidence included computer hard drives and marriage certificates.

The state alleges that in 2004 Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, sexually assaulted a girl who was 16 soon after she became his spiritual wife.

Prosecutors are relying heavily on genetic and circumstantial evidence to make their case that Jessop lived at the ranch with the alleged victim and assaulted her there.

Among the evidence disputed Monday: photos from inside a birthing center at the ranch. Walther allowed the photos to be entered "conditionally" despite Stevens' objection that there was no evidence linking anything shown at the center -- from a recliner to hospital bed, hair brushes and baby bottles -- to Jessop, his alleged victim or the birth of her child.

FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop later told reporters that the center did not exist in 2005 when the alleged victim's child was born.

Stevens did manage to get one document depicting Jessop and another woman and children thrown out after arguing it was irrelevant to the state's charge. But the judge allowed the state to submit a 1994 Utah certificate for a marriage between Jessop and Mary Johnson Musser, his first wife.

The jury also heard for the first time a DNA expert explain how she concluded that Jessop fathered the alleged victim's child.

Amy Smuts, a forensic analyst, used a poster-sized chart and red marker to show the jury how 15 DNA markers from Jessop matched those of the child, who is now four. Smuts said the test showed there is a 99.999998 percent probability that Jessop is the "true biological father."

As he did Friday, defense attorney Brandon T. Hudson objected to the use of the genetic evidence on constitutional grounds and as prejudicial but was overruled by Walther.

Hudson asked Smuts if the DNA of any other men had been compared with that of the alleged victim and her child, specifically that of a biological relative to Jessop such as a brother.

Smuts said she tested DNA of Merril Leroy Jessop, whom prosecutors told her was a brother. But the state dropped introduction of that test after Hudson objected to its relevance.

Willie Jessop said later that Merril Leroy Jessop and Raymond Merril Jessop are half brothers who have the same father but different mothers.

Also on Monday, Barbara Cochrell, an investigator with Texas Child Protective Services, testified that during the investigation she observed the alleged victim on two occasions in a home that the state claims Jessop shared with his wives at the ranch.

Stevens pointed at Jessop as he asked Cochrell whether she saw him at the home on either visit.

"No, I did not," she said.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13695487

Emphasis added by H4K Editor