Lenore Holm




Lenore Holm

In 1976, an FLDS trust, called the United Effort Plan, gave Milton Holm and his previous wife permission to occupy a vacant lot in Colorado City, AZ. As had happened with other members of the church, the church prophet, Leroy Johnson, told Milton he could build a house on the trust's property and live there forever. He built his home, assuming all responsibility for the costs of labor and materials. Milton and his current wife, Lenore, received an eviction notice in July 2000 after Lenore refused to let her 16-year-old underage daughter, Nichole, wed a 39-year-old church member in an arranged marriage. This 39-year-old "groom", whom the 16-year-old girl was to marry, was already married and had 10 children. When they refused to move away, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sued to evict Milton and Lenore Holm from their six-bedroom house in Colorado City, where they had lived for more than 27 years. Below are some articles describing the torment that the Holms went through for almost 3 years to save their home. These news articles are listed in chronological order.


Mother's Complaints Lead to Canadian Investigation of FLDS Church
By Kent Larsen Mormon-News Originally published November 3, 2000
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- Lenore Holm objected when her Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints Church leaders determined that her 16-year-old daughter should marry a 39-year-old Utah polygamist. But her daughter was then taken to British Columbia to an FLDS commune there without Holm's permission. Holm, who has been excommunicated by the FLDS Church, is now fighting back, filing complaints with Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police and with Utah's special investigator of "closed societies," Ron Barton. Holm believes her daughter was taken to Canada illegally and has probably wed illegally also. "I am concerned my daughter may have been married in secret and I want to know how she got across the border without parental consent," she said Wednesday. Read more


Colorado City family faces civil action against polygamist church
By Jim Seckler Kingman Daily Miner Originally published April 21, 2003
A Colorado City family faces eviction from their home when their civil case goes to trial next month in Mohave County Superior Court. At issue is the United Effort Plan, a trust that owns the property that Lenore and Milton Holm and their children have lived on for more than 27 years. The United Effort Plan is a business arm of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints. The church broke away from the Mormon Church and practices polygamy mostly in Colorado City, at the northern tip of Mohave County, and adjacent Hildale, Utah. In 1976, the trust gave Milton Holm and his previous wife permission to occupy the vacant lot on Carling Street in Colorado City as it had with other members of the church. Then church leader, Leroy Johnson, told Holm he could build a house and live there forever. No documents were signed, Lenore Holm said. Holm has since built a six-bedroom, 3,600-square foot home on the lot that, when finished, is expected to be a 5,000-square foot home. In early 2000, Lenore Holm said the church forced them out of their home because she refused to allow her then 16-year-old daughter, Nicole, to marry Wynn Jessop, a 39-year-old church member, who already had a wife and children. Read more


Colorado City family faces suit over eviction
FLDS church claims right to expel disobedient family from property
By Jane Zhang The Spectrum Originally published May 14, 2003
ST. GEORGE -- A family being evicted from their Colorado City home will appear Thursday in Arizona state court in Kingman to answer charges in a lawsuit filed by the Fundamentalist church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Judge James E. Chavez of the Superior Court of the State of Arizona will decide whether Milton and Lenore Holm will lose the home that Milton started building in 1976 on property owned by the church's United Effort Plan. The couple received an eviction notice in 2000 after Lenore Holm refused to let her underage daughter, Nichole, marry an older man. While the Holms worry about being thrown on the street with their nine young children, their case has been closely watched by anti-polygamy activists as a litmus test for future class-action lawsuits against the FLDS church. Read more


Religious eviction case goes to judge
By Jim Seckler Kingman Daily Miner Originally published Friday, May 16, 2003
A couple’s refusal to allow an arranged marriage of their daughter to a polygamist church member became the focal point of an eviction suit argued Thursday in Mohave County Superior Court. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is suing to evict Milton and Lenore Holm from their six-bedroom house in Colorado City. The lawyer for the church called Milton Holm to testify. Holm said when he built his home on church property in 1976, he assumed that church's former leader, Leroy Johnson, allowed him to build and live on the property forever. The Holms claim that United Effort Plan, a financial arm of the church, is forcing them out of their home because Lenore Holm refused to allow her then-16-year-old daughter, Nicole, to marry Wynn Jessop. At the time, Jessop, a 39-year-old church member, was married and had 10 children. The church practices polygamy mostly in Colorado City and Hildale right across the Utah border. Salt Lake City attorney Rodney Parker, representing UEP, argued that permission to stay on the land depends on whether or not the Holms are church members. Read more


Arizona judge takes FLDS case under advisement
Polygamous church seeks eviction ruling against disaffected members
By Jane Zhang The Spectrum Originally published May 16, 2003
KINGMAN, Ariz. -- After a hearing that lasted more than four hours, an Arizona state court judge didn't rule Thursday on whether a Colorado City family should be evicted from their 5,000-square-foot home built on property owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Judge James E. Chavez of the Arizona Superior Court, said he would issue a ruling on an unspecified date on the eviction of Milton and Lenore Holm, who became apostates in 2000 after Lenore refused to give permission to have her 16-year-old daughter married as a plural wife. The case has been closely watched by both anti-polygamy activists and FLDS church leaders, who crowded the courtroom Thursday in Kingman, Ariz. One of the fastest-growing polygamist groups in North America, the church still teaches the practice of polygamy as a religious principle. Through the United Effort Plan, the FLDS church holds most of the land in Hildale. "This case involves a rather unique issue, and that has to do with whether a church trust can control its membership," argued UEP attorney Rodney R. Parker. As the Holms have been ousted from the church, he said, they should carry out the eviction notice that was issued in July 2000. Read more


Judge rules against Colorado City church in property case
By Steve Johnson Mohave Daily News Originally published May 22, 2003
KINGMAN -- Ex-church members can remain on church-owned land or they must be compensated for their house, a superior court judge ruled Thursday afternoon. The ruling was handed down by Mohave County Superior Court Judge James Chavez after a hearing last week between the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of Colorado City, and former church members Milton and Lenore Holm. According to the judge's ruling, a church formed trust, called the United Effort Plan in 1976 gave Milton Holm land in the 200 block of Carling Street to build a house under the condition he remain a faithful follower of the church and its edicts, including polygamy and arranged marriages. Read more


Judge rules in favor of Colorado City family
By Jim Seckler Kingman Daily Miner Originally published Friday, May 23, 2003
A controversial Northern Arizona polygamist church must compensate a Colorado City couple for their home or allow them to stay on church property, a judge ruled Thursday. Mohave County Superior Court Judge James Chavez dismissed the complaint filed by The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints against Lenore and Milton Holm. Chavez ruled that United Effort Plan, the financial arm of the church, has the right to the residence during Milton Holm's lifetime but "only upon payment of fair compensation for the improvements on the land." Lenore Holm screamed with delight at hearing the news. "Wow. I'm so gratified to God," she said. "This will prove there's freedom to other people living on UEP land." Read more


Judge rejects FLDS request over property
Judge dismisses attempted eviction of Holm family
By Dave Hawkins The Spectrum Originally published May 23, 2003
KINGMAN, Ariz. -- A judge in Kingman has rejected a request by a church-controlled trust to evict a Colorado City man from trust property he has occupied for 36 years. Mohave County Superior Court Judge James E. Chavez on Thursday dismissed the complaint that the United Effort Plan brought against Milton Holm. "It's amazing. Colorado City is a part of America. I was starting to wonder," said Lenore Holm, Milton Holm's wife. Rodney Parker, the plaintiff's attorney, argued during a civil trial last week that the UEP was a tool that the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints used to control much of the property and many of the residents in the predominately polygamous community straddling the northern Arizona border. Parker said, like many others, the Holms are tenants at will of the trust, that the church could evict them for any reason and was entitled to do so since the residents no longer were members of the church. Read more


Dixie newcomers get an earful on polygamy
By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News Originally published Wednesday, June 11, 2003
ST. GEORGE — A homeless anti-polygamy group was welcomed with open arms Tuesday by the Dixie Newcomers Club. More than 90 members of the group met at Bloomington Country Club to listen to supporters of Help the Child Brides, an organization dedicated to helping young girls flee pre-arranged polygamous marriages. "We just want to get the message out. I think you'll hear some things today that will shock and surprise you and make you think you live on another planet," said Curran, who lost his lease on a small office on Tabernacle Street in St. George. Lenore Holm, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who still lives in the polygamous community of Colorado City, Ariz., has become the movement's most visible figure of late. Holm, who just won a court battle with the FLDS Church over its attempt to evict the Holms from their home built on church land, is featured in a Canadian-produced documentary and often speaks about the abuses she says are part of the polygamist lifestyle. "It is so hard when your mind has been programmed," she told the group. "I was programmed as a child that I was to grow up and belong to a man. So I turned my will over." Holm said she married her first husband because the church's leader told her to. Read more


Arizona court rules against Colorado City eviction
By Paul Davenport The Associated Press East Valley Tribune Originally published November 30, 2004
PHOENIX (AP) -- An Arizona court has ruled that leaders of a polygamist sect couldn't evict a couple after ousting the man from the sect. However, the Court of Appeals said the case it decided Tuesday didn't resolve underlying legal issues involving the dispute over property in Colorado City, a polygamist community in northern Arizona. Milton and Lenore Holm said he was excommunicated from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 2000 after she balked at allowing her 15-year-old daughter to wed a 39-year-old married man. Church attorney Rodney Parker in Salt Lake City did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday. Church officials previously denied there was any connection between the property issue and Lenore Holm's daughter, who married the man after she turned 18. The Court of Appeals upheld a Mohave County trial judge's ruling dismissing an eviction action filed against the Holms by the United Effort Plan Trust controlled by leaders of the FLDS. Read more


Judge rules couple can stay in home
Colorado City man wins battle with FLDS trust
By Staff and Wire Reports The Spectrum Originally published December 1, 2004
PHOENIX -- An Arizona appellate court ruled Tuesday that leaders of a polygamist sect on the Arizona-Utah border could not evict a couple after ousting the man from the sect. The man was removed from his home when his wife, Lenore Holm, refused to allow her 15-year-old daughter to wed a 39-year-old married man. During the case presented to the Arizona Superior Court in May 2003, UEP Attorney Rod Parker dismissed the story from Lenore Holm's daughter as irrelevant to the case and said the reason for the eviction was not based on religion. The Court of Appeals upheld the Mohave County trial judge's ruling, dismissing the eviction action filed against Milton and Lenore Holm by a trust controlled by leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Read more




Watch the Colorado City and the Underground Railroad documentary trailer



Watch this December 2000 video on Lenore Holm by Mike Watkiss



Watch this video on Lenore Holm



Read the original 2003 trial transcript of the United Effort Trust, Plaintiff vs Milton Holm and Lenore Holm, et al., Defendant - Mohave County Superior Court Case No. CV-00-0528



Read the 11-30-2004 Opinion on the Appeal from the Superior Court in Mohave County Cause No. CV-00-0528

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