From jail, Jeffs may hold sway
 Officials worry control of polygamous enclave will continue
 
By Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
 
COLORADO CITY - The man tasked with dragging a polygamous sect into the 21st century got a taste a few weeks ago of how much control Warren Steed Jeffs had over his flock, even after 14 months on the run.

Bruce Wisan, who oversees the trust that controls most of Colorado City, Ariz., and neighboring Hildale, Utah, called a public hearing to explain details of his plan to disperse the trust's housing and land to church members. The holdings were placed in trust last year after they were wrested from Jeffs and high-ranking followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Only two people attended the hearing, a father and son, out of the estimated 8,000 people living in the largest multiple-marriage community in the country.

"He controlled things while he was on the run, and he'll control things while he is behind bars, just like mob leaders do," Wisan said.

Jeffs, who was on the FBI's most-wanted list, was arrested Monday night north of Las Vegas during a traffic stop.

Wisan, special fiduciary of the United Effort Plan trust, said that despite Jeffs' legal problems, he never lost control over his disciples while he was evading capture.

If federal and state law enforcement officers are to see any substantial change in Colorado City, they better keep Jeffs in jail for a long time and severely restrict his communications with his adherents, residents of this isolated area on the Arizona-Utah line say.

Fears of local residents

"People here have rationalized him tearing their own families apart as he reassigned wives to other men," said Colorado City resident Lori Chatwin, a former church member. "As long as he doesn't discredit himself when he testifies and admit that he was wrong, they'll accept anything that he says."

That includes accepting Warren's brother, Lyle Jeffs, as the temporary leader of the FLDS, which has no connection to the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Gary Engels, a Mohave County investigator. Engels has built cases against eight local men accused of taking underage brides. One of them has been convicted, and seven are awaiting trial.

Winston Blackmore, leader of a breakaway sect of the FLDS in Bountiful, British Columbia, visited the Colorado City/Hildale area last month, but "my sense is that there's not a lot of sentiment for (Blackmore) to come back," Engels said.

'Sense of freedom'

The key to bringing some sense of normalcy to the area is providing individual deeds to those residing on United Effort Plan property during the next three or four years, said Ben Bistline, a former church member and Colorado City historian.

"Until there is some sense of freedom here, which this would provide, no one would go up against Warren because their entire life savings are in these homes," Bistline said.

Wisan has been pushing a plan to create a so-called spendthrift trust, which would hold homes in trust for church members until they could be deemed able to control management of the properties. That proposal is awaiting a ruling by a Utah judge.

Wisan also said that he would like to sell each of the 1-acre lots back to the new homeowners for $15,000 to $20,000 as one way of recouping some of the trust's lost assets.

Church leaders bought large tracts and constructed compounds in Texas, Colorado and South Dakota shortly before Wisan was appointed to take over the trust.

Authorities have expressed fears that church members would turn the properties over to Warren Jeffs if they received title to the properties too quickly.

Private industry sought

Wisan also has been actively pursuing private industry to come into the area and either build on land that would be sold by the trust or to take over vacated buildings, like one left behind when the FLDS moved a machine manufacturing shop to the Salt Lake City area last year. One unidentified computer company in the Salt Lake City area has entered negotiations to relocate to Hildale, Wisan said.

"Even if we could get just one company here that would bring in outsiders to work, that would have a dramatic effect on the entire society," Wisan said. FLDS assets in the Colorado City and Hildale area have been estimated at about $125 million.

Engels also said that special action needs to be taken by Arizona to unincorporate Colorado City and for Utah to do the same with Hildale.

'Clean out this cesspool'

"Both states need to go in and clean out this cesspool of nothing but people doing Warren's bidding in the municipal governments," Engels said. "This is long overdue."

Bistline said that most of the communities' leaders already have been farmed out to Texas, Colorado and South Dakota to the FLDS' holdings in the three states. A huge temple to the sect has been constructed on more than 1,000 acres of church property near Eldorado, Texas, and an estimated 500 FLDS members have relocated to that area in the western part of the state.

"They are probably looking at that as a big mistake now if Warren goes to jail for years in Utah," Bistline said. "That wasn't exactly the sharpest thing to do, to relocate a bunch of people like this among Texans in the Bible Belt."

Reach the reporter at mark.shaffer@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8057.
 
azcentral.com
Originally published August 31, 2006
 
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