Polygamous leader Lyle Jeffs flees home confinement

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Polygamous sect leader Lyle Jeffs has fled home confinement in Salt Lake City less than two weeks after he was let out of jail pending trial on charges in a multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud scheme.

Jeffs was ordered to wear a GPS monitor and stay in a Salt Lake County house, except for going to work, doctor's appointments and court hearings.

The judge wrote in that ruling that Lyle Jeffs couldn't be trusted to adhere to conditions of release because of his loyalty to his brother, plus a history of evading law enforcement by using aliases and concealing his whereabouts.

Sam Brower, a private investigator who has researched the church for years, received a phone call from authorities Monday morning asking to get the word out and report any leads about Lyle Jeffs' whereabouts.

Prosecutors say sect leaders instructed followers to buy items with their food stamp cards and give them to a church warehouse where leaders decided how to distribute products to followers.