Warren Jeffs: Making FBI's Most Wanted List

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," May 10, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs is wanted for sexual contact with a minor and accomplice to rape — in this case, forcing a teenage girl to marry and have sex with an adult man. This week, the FBI named Jeffs one of their 10 Most Wanted fugitives. How did he make a list that includes international terrorist Usama bin Laden?

Joining us in Washington is acting assistant director of criminal investigations at the FBI Chip Burrus. Nice to see you, sir.

CHIP BURRUS, ACTING FBI ASST. DIRECTOR: Thank you.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did someone have to move off the list to make an empty seat, or does the 10 Most Wanted sometimes include 11?

BURRUS: No, it doesn't. It always includes 10. And the last person on the list was caught in Juarez, Mexico, 48 hours after we put him on the list. And he was a child molester, too.

BURRUS: So you don't have an opening for very long, apparently.

BURRUS: Well, sometimes. There's a guy on the list who was on when I joined the bureau in 1983. So it's been a long time.

VAN SUSTEREN: But if you picked up this guy, it was unlikely that, the one in Mexico, that you were going to have the list empty for a couple weeks while you look for the 10th.

BURRUS: No. No. What we do is, we canvas the field offices. We have 56 field offices. We canvas them, and from that, we take a lot of different nominations, and we choose who we think is the best selection for this top 10 list.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. So when you picked up the last, 10th person, did the word go out to all the areas, "We picked up number 10, so we now have a vacancy?"

BURRUS: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: And how did Mr. Jeffs get on?

BURRUS: Well, here's what happens. We canvass the field offices for nominations. And there are two factors that go into the selection for the top 10 list: No. 1, you have to be accused of a particularly heinous crime. And No. 2, there has to be some indication that perhaps publicity will help find you and bring you to justice.

In Mr. Jeffs's case, he had the particular heinous crime, he's charged with child molestation, conspiracy, and he's got two federal warrants on him called "UFAP," Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution. And in this case, too, because he's been wanted for about a year and he travels between various compounds, we think, we thought the publicity would really do us some good to bring him on the list and make people aware that he is wanted and, hopefully, bring him to justice safely.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is there ever a big debate, almost like a little argument, about who should go on, like, someone might have his or her candidate for it?

BURRUS: Oh, they all have their candidates, all the 56 field offices. And it's interesting to hear them make their various arguments for it. But in the end, I make a recommendation to the deputy director, and he decides the final person.

VAN SUSTEREN: White House ever have anything to do with it, ever make a call and say, Look, we'd like you to put some attention on this one?

BURRUS: Absolutely not.

VAN SUSTEREN: Never done.

BURRUS: Never.

VAN SUSTEREN: How long have you been with the FBI?

BURRUS: For 23 years.

BURRUS: Never heard of that?

BURRUS: Never heard of that.

VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of Mr. Jeffs, so the publicity is the thing that puts him on, pretty much, I mean, because there are lots of child molesters out there with, you know, lots of warrants sitting on them.

BURRUS: But this one's a particular case, Greta. In this case, you have a guy who not only is a child molester, an accused child molester himself, but he facilitates it. He's been in charge of a fundamental group for many years, and he facilitates it. It's not just the fact he's a child molester, but he also facilitates it. He's been charged as an accomplice. He's been charged with conspiracy. And we think that makes him pretty dangerous.

VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of the crimes he's charged with, the federal crimes, are they the unlawful flight and not the sex crimes? They are not federal crimes, are they?

BURRUS: No.

VAN SUSTEREN: So it's just the unlawful flight that makes it a federal crime.

BURRUS: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: So in order for that to be sort of powerful, you have to talk to the state people to see how — underlying, how serious their charges are, right?

BURRUS: That's right.

VAN SUSTEREN: So in this instance, did you talk to Utah or Arizona to see how serious their charges were?

BURRUS: We talked to both of them. Arizona was the first one to file charges — Mohave County sheriff's office filed charges against him. And we began to attempt to help find him at that time. We didn't have a UFAP, but when Utah filed its charges — Washington County, Utah, filed its charges, then you have UFAPs in two separate states, and then that kind of raised his profile. We began to look very hard at him. And then an opening came up on the top 10, and we felt like this would be a good opportunity for us to put some publicity out, take the opportunity, so that he thinks every time he stops at a gas station or every time he shops at a store, he might get caught.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. We've only got about 15 seconds left. Is it more exciting when you arrest someone on the top 10 than when you arrest somebody who's not on the top 10?

BURRUS: Of course. Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: That's what I figured. Because it takes one off the notch.

BURRUS: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Anyway, thank you, sir. Appreciate that.

BURRUS: My pleasure. Thank you.

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