ST. GEORGE – A 5th District Court judge authorized a warrant Wednesday for the arrest of a Hildale man who once worked as bodyguard for Warren Jeffs, the polygamous church leader who is serving a life sentence in prison for sexually assaulting a child.
William R. Jessop, 42, is being sought by the court after his failure to appear for two hearings to schedule payments he owes private investigator Samuel Brower. Brower won a claim that Jessop subjected him to a frivolous court filing, which required Brower to incur legal expenses he wants Jessop to pay.
One of Jessop’s three attorneys, Blaine Hofeling, told Judge G. Rand Beacham that Jessop is out of the country on unknown business and could not be present for Wednesday’s hearing.
“Yesterday, I called to check (with Jessop),” Hofeling said. “And he ended up in Switzerland.”
Beacham issued the $15,000 warrant and scheduled a new hearing on the matter for Nov. 23. Hofeling said he and Brower’s attorney, Willard Bishop, may reach a settlement on payment of Brower’s legal expenses before November, but Beacham said he still wants to see Jessop in court.
“As you can imagine, I don’t take well to people not showing up – especially not showing up twice. I’d like to hear why his appearance is optional when everyone else’s is mandatory,” Beacham said. “Whether he should be sanctioned or not, I don’t know.”
The court case between the two arose after Jessop filed a complaint in July 2008 seeking a restraining order against Brower, alleging Brower had taken television news crews from Northern Utah to property in the twin state-line communities of Hildale and Colorado City owned by members of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, where they allegedly subjected the FLDS members to fear as they trespassed on the residents’ lands.
Brower denied the claims, stating he had recently returned from Texas, where he had been assisting a private investigator involved with a polygamy case. The court ruled Jessop did not have sufficient evidence to support his request for a restraining order.
“His witnesses would not lie for him,” Brower said. “We never had to put on our case.”
Brower then sued and won payment of the legal expenses he had incurred as a result of the court case, including travel expenses for witnesses from Salt Lake City’s ABC and NBC television news stations.
Jessop has failed to appear twice this year for hearings related to what assets he could dedicate to payment of Brower’s expenses, which amount to more than $13,000, leading to the authorization of Wednesday’s warrant.
Hofeling sent the judge a letter after Jessop failed to appear in June, claiming Jessop had been in the courthouse but somehow ended up in the wrong place as he was trying to avoid being seen with his cousin – a Washington County Sheriff’s deputy who was in court to testify at the unrelated trial of a former Enterprise resident involved in a standoff with deputies.
The court clerk added a notation to the case minutes refuting Hofeling’s claims about the time and location of the trial event Jessop claimed interfered with his ability to be present.
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“The fact is, everybody else was able to find the courtroom and be here, and Willie didn’t,” Brower said Wednesday.
Brower also challenged Hofeling’s story that Jessop may be seeking employment in Switzerland.
“Switzerland just isn’t the place someone would run off looking for work in the excavation business. Maybe to get to a Swiss (bank) account though,” Brower said by email.
Jessop shares the same first and last name as another noted member of the FLDS church, with whom he is sometimes confused. William E. Jessop, also 42 and formerly known as William Timpton, is a former Hildale City Council member and former member of the United Effort Plan board that controls the assets owned by members of the FLDS church.
The latter William Jessop was declared by Jeffs to be the FLDS church’s rightful prophet and leader during a phone call that was recorded in 2007 while Jeffs was incarcerated in Utah on an accomplice to rape charge.
Jeffs’ attorney later said his client misspoke. Brower said some division has arisen within the community over who should now be the church’s leader.
Although William R. Jessop did not appear in court Wednesday, he and Brower appeared together later in the day on the “Dr. Phil” television show, concluding a two-part interview about the FLDS community that was taped last month in California.
