ST. GEORGE, Utah - A Utah judge has rejected a request for a new trial for a polygamous-sect leader convicted of rape as an accomplice.

State district court spokeswoman Nancy Volmer says the ruling came Thursday from Judge James Shumate (SHOO’-mayt).

Warren Jeffs’ laywers say his conviction should be thrown out because a juror failed to disclose she had been raped. The juror was replaced during deliberations.

Jeffs, 52, is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The sect’s Texas ranch was raided April 3. Hundreds of children were removed.

Jeffs was convicted in September in southern Utah for his role in arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to an older cousin. He is now locked up in Arizona awaiting trial in a different case.