Nov. 14 hearing set over FLDS trust challenge
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret News
 
The man appointed to oversee the Fundamentalist LDS Church's land holdings has not declared war on faithful members of the polygamous sect.

But his lawyers contend in new court documents that he is defending a war that is being waged against him, the courts and the United Effort Plan Trust itself. The war began in 2005 shortly after the trust was taken over by the courts when entire buildings were dismantled and whisked away.

"Indeed, throughout the entire tenure of this case, there has been a conspiracy of non-cooperation, hostility and sabotage against the Trust," lawyer Jeffrey L. Shields wrote in papers filed this week in 3rd District Court.

Responding to a request to halt a land sale in the FLDS communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., lawyers for the court-appointed special fiduciary accused the conspirators of trying to starve the cash-strapped trust and wrest it away from the courts.

"They detest the court's religious neutrality requirement," Shields wrote. "They seek a system whereby the Trust's assets are controlled by a small elite group who are free to discriminate on the basis of religion. They seek the ability to evict all non-FLDS people, and to control the lives of ordinary FLDS people by controlling where they may live, and by evicting them if they fall out of favor in the future."

FLDS members Willie Jessop, Dan Johnson and Merlin Jessop are trying to block the sale of Berry Knoll, 711 acres of farmland that they say is a sacred temple site for the FLDS. In court papers filed earlier this month, their attorney Jim Bradshaw argued that the land also provides a lot of food for the FLDS people.

"FLDS members have long feared that the special fiduciary has designs to destroy their church, and the audacious 'in your face' nature of this proposed sale is not lost on the FLDS people," Bradshaw wrote. "It is difficult to understate the sense of contempt and outrage felt by members of the FLDS community over the proposed sale of Berry Knoll."

Court-appointed special fiduciary Bruce Wisan's attorneys called it an "eleventh hour claim," saying FLDS leadership rejected an earlier prophecy of the temple site and it was never brought up in depositions with church members.

Besides, Shields wrote, if they want the land they can offer to buy it. Wisan has proposed selling it to members of the Centennial Park polygamous community, which broke away from the FLDS Church years ago. That move highly offends the FLDS, Bradshaw wrote.

Formal notice has gone out that the judge overseeing the trust will hold a hearing in St. George's 5th District Court on Nov. 14 beginning at 9:30 a.m. to consider whether to sell Berry Knoll or not. Judge Denise Lindberg has noted the years of relative silence from FLDS members on trust reforms, raising questions of whether the court challenges are too late.

The UEP Trust was taken over by the courts in 2005 amid allegations that FLDS leaders mismanaged it. The $110 million trust controls homes, businesses and property in Hildale, Colorado City and in Canada. Since then, the court has ordered reforms that do away with the communal nature of the trust and pave the way for private property ownership.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
DeseretNews.com
Originally published Friday, Oct. 31, 2008
 
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