Arizona Steps Aside, Waits until at least May.

Did I not say something important, this way comes, on Friday? Granted, for the News Hound in me, it's a bit disappointing, but it appears Judge Conn will let Texas (hopefully) do his work for him. That's a shame, because I trust Conn more than the clowns in Texas, but it makes sense.

"A battle over evidence seized from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's Texas ranch will be delayed until at least May, prosecutors in Arizona said Monday.

'Our evidentiary hearing is not going to take place until after Texas' evidentiary hearing,' Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith's office said in an e-mail to the Deseret News."

Judge Conn does not appear to relish the role of back seat driver. This way, both Piccarreta (Jeffs) and Matt Smith win, though for now, I'd say Matt Smith wins a little more, since he wasn't winning any rounds.

The Judge also does not have to appear to be a reader of tea leaves, and doesn't have to confront Matt Smith publicly over evidence he says he's not going to use, and he doesn't have to argue with Texas over who gets which witness next. It may be in fact, that in loudly clearing his throat that he was going to settle the issue in March, Judge Steven Conn made sure Texas would address the issue in May.

"In Texas, a judge has scheduled a May hearing on a challenge to the search warrants in connection with several criminal cases pending there against FLDS men. A dozen men, including Jeffs, have been indicted by an Eldorado grand jury on charges ranging from sexual assault of a child and bigamy to failure to report child abuse and performing an illegal marriage ceremony."

This saves everybody a lot of time, but is a victory of sorts for Texas, in that they get to do this on their home court, which has been relentlessly hostile to the FLDS and they screen out a very effective player in Michael Piccarreta. They also screen out Judge Conn, who seemed increasingly to buy into the arguments that Piccarreta was making.

It keeps making you believe that Colorado in the form of David Foley, is getting all this information in advance. Friday a trial date is set for Rozita, in May, and Monday Arizona punts to a proceeding ultimately intertwined with Rozita, in May.

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