Allen Steed has order issued for discovery, by Judge

In a conversation with Allen Glade Steed's legal firm today I found out that there was indeed no appearance on Wednesday (October 22nd, 2008). Instead 5th District Court Judge G. Rand Beacham issued orders regarding discovery.

Thinking strategically this has to be good for Allen's case since Judge Beacham said "the preliminary hearing could be used now to examine discovery issues" when the date was originally penciled into the calender. It would now seem that discover issues have taken precedence over the normal movement of the case indicating that Allen's side did indeed have a point when they said evidence that SHOULD have been turned over to them, had not been.

Refreshing your memory on that, the defense had "insisted (they) withheld only documents (they) considered privileged because they were 'work projects' that included opinions, legal analyses and other commentary from the attorneys in (their) office."

The defense argued "there were multiple agencies, both in and outside of Utah, and numerous individuals who participated in the investigation that led to the charges filed against Jeffs and Steed. 'All of these agencies and people were talking to each other. If Mr. Steed is going to face this allegation, he is entitled to all the same evidence that the state has...' "

It seems Judge Beacham agrees, for now. Once such evidence is ordered to be turned over, even if it isn't used in court, it's like trying to put a cork back in a wine bottle. It's just not the same. This is a good thing for the defense.

(Portions of this story come from a Deseret News article previously cited in this blog. The new material is from an interview today, conducted by the Modern Pharisee.)

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