New developments in alleged book burning in FLDS towns

Ben Winslow Fox13Now.com KSTU-TV

COLORADO CITY, Arizona — Fox 13 has obtained video of an alleged book burning outside a library being built in this polygamous border town. But a lawyer for members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints insists things are not what they appear. "There was tens of thousands of dollars in there," ex-FLDS member Isaac Wyler told a Colorado City Town Marshal on the video obtained by Fox 13. "There was thousands of books!" Boxes of books intended for a new library were discovered missing from the building last week. Outside, a pile of trash and some books are still burning. "We all know who did it!" Wyler told the police officer. Some in the community said they suspect FLDS members, who may have been acting under orders from jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. Colorado City Town Marshals and the Mohave County Sheriff's Office are investigating, after criminal complaints were filed by ex-FLDS members and the southern Utah-based Hope Organization, which conducted a book drive to build the library. "They were not their books. They didn't have a right to burn them," said Wanda Huffaker with the Utah Library Association. Huffaker said she was outraged to learn of the alleged book burning, calling it a theft of the basic freedoms of Americans. "There's five rights guaranteed in the First Amendment and religion does not trump freedom of speech, freedom of press," Huffaker said. "So don't pull the religion card on me on this one!" The books were donated from people across Utah and the nation to create a new library to replace the old Hildale-Colorado City library that was shuttered. Not all of the books were destroyed. Boxes of the books, stacked on pallets and shrink-wrapped were found at a Cedar City Deseret Industries. In an interview with Fox 13 on Friday, Rod Parker, an attorney for some FLDS members, said a man stepped forward and told him that he was merely cleaning up a dilapidated building that was being vandalized by teenagers who would get into the building to "party." "They burned the trash," Parker said. "Some books were burned, but they were trash. They were damaged by water, they were ripped apart." The man acknowledged taking the books to the Deseret Industries and some libraries in Cedar City and St. George, Parker said. "This wasn't a ritual book burning, it wasn't a political statement," Parker told Fox 13. "It wasn't an attempt to get in anyone's face. It really was an attempt to try to clean up a problem. Talking to folks out there, sensed some genuine surprise that it was taken the way it was." The land in Hildale and Colorado City are in the midst of a lengthy court battle over control of the community's property entity. The United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust was taken over by a judge in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court in 2005 amid allegations that FLDS leader Warren Jeffs mismanaged it. A federal judge ordered the UEP returned to FLDS members, who claim the state takeover violates their freedom of religion rights. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver is considering appeals of that ruling. Parker said that the FLDS member may have believed the federal judge's order applied. He insisted the man wasn't trying to "take over" but solve a problem. Regardless, the man had no business being in the building without court approval, said a lawyer for the court-appointed UEP fiduciary. "To say this was just a clean up project, I don't think that's consistent with reality," said Jeffrey L. Shields. "That building had been locked, designated as a building by the fiduciary for a library."

FOX13Now.com Originally broadcast April 22, 2011

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