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KINGMAN, Ariz. - An Arizona judge dropped four of eight charges against polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs on Wednesday, saying a state incest law does not apply to the arranged marriages of two teenage girls and their older male relatives.

Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn dismissed the charges at the request of the defense, finding that the incest law only applies if both participants in the sexual activity are older than 18, and that the law does not apply to half cousins.

In both of the marriages Jeffs is accused of arranging, the girls were under 18 and were their husbands' half cousins. He was charged with incest as an accomplice.

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Jeffs, who was already prosecuted in Utah, is still charged in Arizona as an accomplice with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor stemming from the marriages of the two girls.

If convicted of all charges, he could face anywhere from probation to eight years in prison. Before the incest charges were dropped Wednesday and two others were dropped in March, Jeffs faced up to 27 years in prison.

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Arizona law is both clear and unambiguous, leaving no room for interpretation.

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Conn also wrote that because the incest law specifically mentions half brothers and sisters, it arguably excludes all other relationships of the half blood by not mentioning them.

In March, Conn dismissed two other charges against Jeffs at the request of the prosecution because the alleged victim in the case, although previously cooperative, refused to testify against the sect leader.

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Piccarreta said he has filed a motion to remand the remaining charges against Jeffs to the grand jury.

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Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn dismissed the charges at the request of the defense, finding that the incest law only applies if both participants in the sexual activity are older than 18, and that the law does not apply to half cousins.