LAS VEGAS - Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs was taken from jail to a Las Vegas hospital Tuesday for an unspecified medical problem.
Jeffs, 52, was brought to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center from an Arizona jail, said Las Vegas police Officer Jose Montoya. Montoya declined to provide details on Jeffs' medical condition and referred questions to the Mohave County Sheriff's Department in Arizona. Calls to a sheriff's spokeswoman were not immediately returned.
Jeffs is president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - an insular faith of nearly 6,000. The faith practices polygamy in arranged marriages that have sometimes involved underage girls. One of their ranches was raided in west Texas in April.
Jeffs was convicted by a Utah jury last year on two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison for his role in the 2001 marriage of a 14-year-old follower to her 19-year-old cousin. Jeffs had been in an Arizona jail awaiting two trials on charges of incest and sexual misconduct.
The sect leader has had several health complications during his jail stay, including a trip to a prison infirmary because of a self-imposed fast. Jeffs also attempted suicide last year and was seen throwing himself against the walls and banging his head, authorities said.
