Shurtleff meets with FLDS Church members
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret News
 
HILDALE, Washington County — Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff traveled here for a historic meeting with members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church in an effort to help negotiate an end to lawsuits over the polygamous sect's real-estate holdings arm.

"I couldn't be happier than to have the chance to talk with FLDS members face-to-face," he told the Deseret News as he wrapped up the tour on Thursday.

Shurtleff and members of his staff were escorted around Hildale and neighboring Colorado City, Ariz., by FLDS member and church spokesman Willie Jessop, who was accompanied by other members and attorneys. They visited a farm, a medical clinic and a manufacturing facility. Some of those sites are caught up in the massive litigation over the United Effort Plan Trust.

As they drove around, children played happily in the snow, sledding and throwing snowballs. Both sides sat down to face each other during a lunch at a company owned by Jessop.

"If people are working off of bad intelligence, then everybody makes presumptions and gets into things that are very difficult to get out of," Jessop said. "We're excited because we feel like it's the first time we feel like we have the opportunity to provide something besides a perspective of only hate groups against us."

Jessop sought a meeting with Shurtleff shortly after the April raid on the FLDS Church's YFZ Ranch in Texas, where hundreds of children were taken into state custody in an abuse investigation.

The attorney general initially rebuffed Jessop until urged to meet by attorneys involved in settlement talks over the UEP Trust. Shurtleff described this week's meetings as "very good, very positive."

"People are obviously, on both sides, hurting and they have lots of strong feelings. But I do strongly believe a resolution is possible," he said.

The visit marks a thaw in the often-icy relations between the Utah attorney general and the FLDS Church. Jessop said the FLDS are willing to make a good-faith effort to continue a dialogue with Shurtleff's office.

"Actions speak louder than words," he said. "We believe their actions have been backed up but we have a long ways to go. The community has been under attack from that office and there's been a lot of misconceptions."

The UEP Trust was taken over by the courts in 2005 amid allegations that Warren Jeffs and other FLDS leaders mismanaged it, including defaulting on lawsuits. A judge appointed a special fiduciary to manage it with an advisory board that is currently made up of mostly ex-FLDS members.

For years, the FLDS were relatively silent on efforts to reform the trust. Recently, lawsuits were filed challenging the reform efforts and arguing that the reforms violated FLDS members' religious freedom rights by denying them the ability to consecrate land to their church.

"They have to choose between their religion and their children in Texas," Jessop said of church members. "Or they have to choose between their religion and children or their land here."

When thousands of FLDS members showed up to protest the sale of Colorado City farmland they consider a sacred temple site, a judge announced a "stand-down" while all sides tried to negotiate a settlement.

Shurtleff said his office initially took the issue to court to protect all of the beneficiaries of the UEP Trust. The attorney general is meeting with ex-FLDS members as well while he is here.

"It was always planned that one day the courts will no longer be involved," he said. "I think you have to have FLDS and non-FLDS members both on the board because they all have interests in certain properties."

However, Shurtleff said he was not handing over the trust to "put things back the way they were."

Jim Bradshaw, who represents FLDS members in some of the litigation, said he is cautiously optimistic that they are making progress.

As long as both sides are willing to keep talking, Jessop said he is confident they can reach a resolution.

Beyond the UEP Trust, Shurtleff said he encouraged the FLDS to participate in the Safety Net Committee, a consortium of government bureaucrats, social service workers, activists and polygamists seeking to help abuse victims in closed societies.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
DeseretNews.com
Originally published Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008
 
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