Court-appointed trust manager pleads not guilty
 
By JENNIFER DOBNER
The Associated Press
El Paso Times
 
SALT LAKE CITY—A court-appointed fiduciary of a polygamous church trust has pleaded not guilty to Arizona misdemeanor trespassing and other charges related to his management operations.

Bruce R. Wisan was charged in Moccassin, Ariz., in April with six combined misdemeanor counts of solicitation, facilitation and criminal trespassing, stemming from allegations that he encouraged a trust employee to enter two homes in Colorado City, Ariz., last summer without the permission of residents.

A judge convicted the employee, Issac Wyler, on two counts trespassing in March. A jail term was suspended and Wyler is serving two years probation.

The homes are held in the United Effort Plan Trust, an arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The trust also holds most of the homes in Hildale, Utah, just across the border, and some property in Bountiful, British Columbia.

The Utah courts took control of the trust after allegations of mismanagement by church leader Warren Jeffs in 2005 and named Wisan its manager.

On June 2, Wisan entered not guilty pleas to each of the class 1 counts. Each charge carries a possible penalty of up to six months in jail.

A pretrial conference is scheduled for July 24 in the Moccasin Consolidated Court.

Wisan was to appear before the same judge who handled Wyler's case. But last month a judge reassigned the case after a defense attorney argued Wisan could not get a fair trial because he is at odds with the FLDS over management of the trust.

The prosecutor who filed the charges is contracted by Colorado City.

A second trust employee, Jethro Barlow, is also charged. He faces four counts—two each of facilitation and criminal trespassing—also for allegedly encouraging Wyler. He has also pleaded not guilty to the charges and will appear in court July 24.

Both Wyler and Barlow are former members of the FLDS church.

Last fall, a trio of church members sued Wisan to regain control of the trust, reversing a directive from Jeffs to ignore state intervention in the UEP.

Jeffs has been in jail since 2007 after he was convicted of felony charges of rape as an accomplice in a Utah court for his role in the 2001 marriage of an underage follower to her cousin. He's in an Arizona jail awaiting two criminal trials on felony charges related to underage marriage.

Settlement negotiations aimed at ending the fight for control of the trust have been in the works since November between Wisan, the FLDS and the attorneys general of Utah and Arizona.

On Monday the Utah attorney general filed a settlement proposal in Utah's 3rd District Court.

Wisan objects to the proposed settlement.

The FLDS also owns a ranch near Eldorado in West Texas.
 
ElPasoTimes.com
Originally published June 16, 2009
 
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