What is the UEP
 
By Randy Mankin, Editor of the "Eldorado Success"
Floyd County Hesperian-Beacon - Floydada, Texas
 
The UEP owns most of the real estate in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. The two towns are actually one community, known collectively as Short Creek. Back in the late 1800's the U.S. government pressured the main stream Mormon church into abandoning polygamy by attaching the church's property and dispossessing individual members found guilty of the practice. The UEP was intended by early FLDS leaders as a preventative cure for this problem. Members of the FLDS Church were allowed to build their homes on UEP land, safe in the knowledge they could never be taken away since the homes belonged, not to the individuals, nor the church, but to a independent charitable trust controlled by church leaders.

Enter Warren Jeffs. As the church's previous prophet Rulon Jeffs suffered a series of strokes and became less and less active in his position of power, Warren Jeffs worked to consolidate his control over church affairs. One way in which he did this was to act in his father's name, excommunicate men he saw as a threat, reassign their wives and children to other men, then order them off UEP property, effectively banishing them from town. The tactic worked, and Jeffs ascended to the position of prophet when his father died in 2002. The excommunications, and the banishments from town continued apace as Warren Jeffs solidified his hold over his people.

But Warren Jeffs pushed too hard, too fast, and some of the people he steam rolled weren't content to lie flat and watch as he made off with their families and their earthly possessions. Soon a series of lawsuits were filed against Jeffs, the FLDS Church and the UEP Trust.

But by then Jeffs was in hiding, facing criminal charges related to his involvement in a series of underage marriages. In Utah the charges were elevated to "Rape as an Accomplice" a first degree felony. Then the Feds entered the case and charged Jeffs with "Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution." Ultimately he found his way onto the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.

The criminal charges made it impossible for Jeffs to come forward to defend the civil charges brought against him by a group called the Lost Boys, young men who claim to have been kicked out of the group in order to reduce the competition for young girls. Others sued also, including Shem Fischer, who alleged that a manufacturing firm called Forestwood Company fired him from his job when he stopped participating in the FLDS faith. Interestingly, Shem Fischer is the brother of Samuel Fischer, the man who has bought the Tye manufacturing facility at Lockney.

Finally, Judge Denise Lindberg removed Jeffs and his lieutenants from their positions of leadership over the UEP. Their failure to answer the numerous lawsuits left the UEP vulnerable as had their prior mismanagement of the trust's assets.

Today the UEP is overseen by Special Fiduciary Bruce Wisan, a Salt Lake City accountant appointed by the judge to run the trust on a day-to-day basis. There is also a UEP board of directors appointed by the judge. Interestingly, one of the members of the new UEP board is a woman named Carolyn Jessop, the former wife of Merrill Jessop, the man who currently oversees the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, Texas.
 
HesperianBeacon.com
Originally published May 17, 2007
 
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