Polygamist leader sentenced to prison
St. George, Utah
A judge sentenced polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs on Tuesday to two consecutive terms of five years to life in prison for his role in the arranged marriage of teenage cousins.
Jeffs, 51, was convicted of two counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in the marriage of a 14-year-old follower and her 19-year-old cousin in 2001. It will be up to the Utah parole board to decide how long Jeffs stays behind bars.
Jeffs is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), whose members practice polygamy in arranged marriages that have often involved placing girls with older men.
The Utah parole board’s first opportunity to review Jeffs’ case comes in 2010.
New York
Activist condemns crucifix factories
A labor-rights group alleged Tuesday that crucifixes sold in religious gift shops in the United States are produced under “horrific” conditions in a Chinese factory with more than 15-hour workdays and inadequate food.
Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, held a news conference to call attention to conditions at a factory in Dongguan, a southern Chinese city near Hong Kong, where he said crosses sold at historic New York churches and elsewhere are made.
Spokespeople for St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Episcopal Trinity Church said the churches had removed dozens of crucifixes from their shops while they investigate the claims.
While none of the crucifixes sold in New York were identified as made in China, they bore serial numbers matching products made at the factory in question, Kernaghan said.
St. Patrick’s and Trinity bought the crosses from Singer, a religious-goods company in Mount Vernon. Co-owner Gerald Singer said the objects were purchased through a Chinese manufacturer, Full Start. “Whether they came out of a sweatshop, we do not know,” Singer said. A man at the Full Start factory in Dongguan said the allegations were “totally incorrect.”
San Francisco
Halberstam driver pleads no contest
A journalism student who drove the car in a collision that killed Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam pleaded no contest Tuesday to one count of vehicular manslaughter.
University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Kevin Jones, 27, who was driving Halberstam to an interview with former football star Y.A. Tittle, faces up to 30 days in jail under a plea agreement worked out with San Mateo County prosecutors.
Superior Court Judge Mark Forcum said he would consider sentencing Jones to five to 10 days in jail and allow him to serve the remainder performing community service. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 14.
Prosecutors and witnesses to the April 23 crash said Jones ran a red light while making an illegal left turn in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco. A Nissan hit Jones’ Toyota Camry broadside on the passenger side. Halberstam, 73, who was riding in the front passenger seat, was killed instantly when a broken rib punctured his heart, the autopsy showed.
New York
Trashed painting tops $1M at auction
An oil painting by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo that was plucked from a sidewalk trash heap several years ago sold for more than $1 million Tuesday at Sotheby’s auction of Latin American art.
The auction house had estimated that “Three Personages,” which was stolen from a Houston warehouse after being bought at auction in 1977, would sell for between $750,000 and $1 million, but the work sold for $1,049,000, including commission.
The oil-and-sand canvas was rescued when a New Yorker, Elizabeth Gibson, saw it in a pile of trash at a curbside on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and brought it home. She researched the work, learning of its worth and history.
Sotheby’s did not identify the seller, but Gibson was to receive a $15,000 reward for returning the artwork to its owners, plus an undisclosed percentage of the auction price.
Also
Fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander, already in police custody in Los Angeles on sex charges, was indicted in New York on 40 counts of rape and sexual assault of nine women, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office prosecutors said Tuesday.
Seattle Times news services