FLDS land sale goes before top court today
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret News
 
The Utah Supreme Court refused to halt a hearing scheduled for today on the proposed sale of more than 700 acres that members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church claim is a holy temple site.

In a ruling handed down late Thursday, the state's highest court also temporarily put a halt to a judge's earlier order disqualifying the Salt Lake City law firm that represents members of the polygamous sect challenging reforms to the United Effort Plan Trust.

"The court intends to conduct a hearing regarding the petition's specific challenges to the district court's rulings," Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Christine Durham wrote.

A judge in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court disqualified Snow, Christensen & Martineau because they once represented the FLDS Church and the trust itself.

"It's a nice victory," attorney Rod Parker said late Thursday. "We want to sit down with the legal team and analyze what it allows us to do and what would be appropriate and not appropriate."

Hundreds of FLDS faithful are expected to appear in a St. George court on Friday to challenge the proposed sale of Berry Knoll, a piece of farmland on the Utah-Arizona border. The court-appointed special fiduciary of the UEP Trust wants to sell it to pay off debts and has accused the FLDS of engaging in a coordinated legal attack to starve the trust of money.

In 2005, the UEP Trust was taken over by the courts over allegations that FLDS leaders mismanaged it by defaulting on lawsuits and siphoning property away from it. The $110 million UEP Trust controls homes and property in the FLDS communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

The trust was reformed, doing away with the communal property concept in favor of private property ownership. After 3 1/2 years of silence, FLDS members are launching legal challenges to the trust reforms claiming the reformed trust violates their religious freedom rights.

Lawyers for the court-appointed special fiduciary over the UEP Trust argue church members are too late to challenge the reforms because they refused repeated pleas for input in the reform process.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
DeseretNews.com
Originally published Friday, Nov. 14, 2008
 
Back