| Meeting on UEP is tonight Fiduciary hopes to sell FLDS members on reform process | |
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By Ben Winslow Deseret Morning News | |
HILDALE, Washington County — Historic reforms affecting thousands of lives in this polygamous border town are about to be implemented. The reformed United Effort Plan Trust will be presented to anyone who shows up at the Hildale Town Hall at 7 p.m. tonight to hear about it. "We'll explain the UEP reforms and the petition process," said Bruce Wisan, the court-appointed special fiduciary of the UEP Trust. Faithful members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church may shy away, as they have at past meetings. But fiduciary lawyer Jeffrey L. Shields hopes to have applications ready tonight for those who do show up to start the process of getting titles to homes and property. "At the end of the day it will help the board make a prudent decision," he said Friday. "Should they get the deed or set up a spendthrift trust?" In 2005, a judge in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City seized control of the UEP Trust after the Utah Attorney General's Office brought up allegations that Warren Jeffs and other FLDS leaders had been fleecing money from the "united order." The UEP Trust controls homes, businesses and property in Hildale and across the border in Colorado City, Ariz. Its assets are estimated at more than $110 million. Jeffs has been accused of kicking people off UEP land while purging members from his church. Families have been split apart, with wives and children reassigned to other men and people moved into different homes. "What about houses where two or three people have lived in it?" Wisan asked in an interview with the Deseret Morning News last week. "That's going to present some issues." Under the reforms, religion has been "carved out" of the trust. The plan paves the way for private property ownership. It creates a number of "spendthrift" trusts that place the UEP's assets in control of a trustee, until the recipients are deemed to be able to control the property themselves. Wisan is also considering a plan to have people living on UEP property buy the land on which their homes sit. A number being floated is about $20,000. The idea is not sitting well with some people in Hildale and Colorado City. "They feel like they already paid for the land," ex-FLDS member Andrew Chatwin said, adding that he is willing to pay "lawyer's fees and the survey" costs to get the title to his home. "I want my own title to my house to get it out from being given away to cover the lawsuits against Warren Jeffs," he said. The UEP Trust has been sued by a number of ex-FLDS members, including the young woman who is expected to testify against Jeffs. Jeffs, 50, is scheduled to appear in 5th District Court in St. George on Tuesday for a preliminary hearing on rape as an accomplice charges. He is accused of forcing a teenage girl into a marriage with an older man. When it comes to reforming the UEP, cooperation from FLDS faithful remains a big problem. Jeffs has issued an edict to his followers concerning reform efforts. "Do not sign your name to any document for property that has already been consecrated to God," Jeffs is reported to have said. Shields said he remains hopeful that FLDS members will come around, although he acknowledges that a lack of cooperation could stall reform efforts for years. "It's probably not going to resolve itself in a generation," he said. E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com | |
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deseretnews.com Originally published Monday, November 20, 2006 | |
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