Warren Jeffs listened to testimony during his preliminary hearing in St. George, Utah, in 2006. Jeffs is charged with rape as an accomplice for his alleged role in forcing a teenager to marry her older cousin.

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FLAGSTAFF — A Mohave County judge has denied an effort to have Arizona's case against polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs sent back to a grand jury for reconsideration.

Jeffs' defense attorney Michael Piccaretta had argued that Jeffs was denied a fair, impartial and unbiased grand jury, and that the prosecution presented false or misleading evidence to the grand jury.

Piccaretta said Monday he plans to appeal Judge Steven Conn's decision.

"We felt that there should have been more inquiries into whatever biases and prejudices the grand jurors had before they heard the case," he said. "We wanted a fair and unbiased grand jury. We wanted it returned so we could obtain one, and the judge disagreed."

Conn agreed that the case has generated a fair amount of publicity in Arizona. But, he said, the law relating to pretrial publicity at a trial level does not apply to a case being presented to a grand jury.

"It goes without saying that in many critical ways the grand jury is not like a trial jury and lacks numerous features that would safeguard the rights of a defendant," Conn wrote in the ruling.

Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith wasn't immediately available for comment.

Jeffs awaits trial in Arizona on four counts of being an accomplice to sexual conduct with a minor. Those charges stem from the marriages of two teenage girls and their adult male relatives.

The grand jury heard presentations on the case in May and July 2007. Conn acknowledged that questioning of grand jurors was not as extensive as it could have been but said it "clearly addressed the possibility of prior knowledge of the case."

Piccaretta had claimed that the prosecution presented false or misleading evidence to the grand jury. He said grand jurors never were read the legal definition of "accomplice," they were not told of statements made by the alleged victim that had cast doubt on her veracity, and the prosecutor improperly influenced the grand jury by making references to Jeffs' religious practices and beliefs.

Conn said the prosecutor appropriately handled the grand jury questions and that "the manner of his doing so did not deprive the defendant of a substantial procedural right."

He noted, however, that Jeffs' defense can succeed in its arguments in two ways.

The court can independently find that the publicity was outrageous and that the grand jury proceeding took on a "carnival" atmosphere, the judge said. Or Jeffs can carry his burden of proving that the publicity in the case deprived him of a fair determination by a grand jury, Conn said.

Piccaretta also plans to ask the judge to bar evidence seized during a raid on the sect's Texas ranch at Jeff's trial in Arizona. Smith had said he believed the actions of Texas authorities were appropriate and constitutional.

Texas authorities were looking for evidence of underage girls forced into marriages and sex.

Jeffs' sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven, but its plural marriages were generally only church-sanctioned, not legal. The church is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.