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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah will prosecute fugitive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs before the state of Arizona does on charges of arranging marriages of underage girls to older men, authorities decided Wednesday.
Arizona filed charges first, but Utah worked out an agreement to try Jeffs first after extradition hearings in Nevada, Washington County Attorney Brook Belnap told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Both cases involve separate victims, but Utah has a stronger case and more serious charges -- two counts of rape by accomplice, which accuse Jeffs of forcing a girl to marry an older man and submit to him sexually.
Jeffs will be sent to Washington County jail in Utah after extradition proceedings in Nevada, where he was captured late Monday after a traffic stop on Interstate 15 just north of Las Vegas. He had been on the run for more than a year and on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list since May.
Jeffs will appear in a Nevada court Thursday, where he will announce whether he plans to fight extradition, which could delay his arrival in Utah, Belnap said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
