Video released of book burning at FLDS library
 
Ben Winslow
Reporter Fox13Now.com
KSTU-TV
HOPE Organazition's burned books

HILDALE, Utah and COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — A new video has emerged of a book burning in the polygamous border towns of Hildale and Colorado City.

The books were part of a library that volunteers are putting together in the towns. It is replacing the old library and rumor has it was ordered closed by FLDS leader Warren Jeffs. Volunteers from all over Utah donated thousands of books to build a new one.

A lawyer for FLDS members in the community tells FOX 13 this is not what people are making it out to be. FOX 13 has obtained this video of the alleged book burning. In the video it shows the burning pile of books and a group of men in a pickup truck watching.

Organizers of the library effort say someone broke into the building, took some of the books out and burned some of them. The huge pallets of books believed to have come from the library wound up at a Cedar City Deseret Industries. Colorado City town marshals and the Mohave County Sheriff's office are now investigating.

The Utah Attorney General's Office tells FOX 13 it has also offered the services of its investigators to authorities in Southern Utah to assist in the probe. A spokesman for the office, who assisted in the donation drive, is outraged. He has called the burning of books a "hate crime."

Rod Parker, a lawyer for some of the FLDS members, tells FOX 13 this is not what it appears to be.

"Now this wasn’t a ritual book burning, it wasn’t a political statement, it wasn’t an attempt to get in anyone’s face," said Parker. "It really was an attempt to try and clean up a problem. And I have been talking to the folks out there and sensed some genuine surprise that it was taken the way it was."

This incident is the latest tensions in the town in a year’s long legal fight over control of the land in Hildale and Colorado City. A federal appeals court in Denver is looking at who should control the United Effort Plan Trust -- whether it should go back to the church and its members, or stay under court control. The land was taken over in 2005 over allegations Warren Jeffs and others mismanaged it.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally broadcast April 22, 2011
 
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