Buildings disappear after court freezes polygamous sect's assets
 
By Jennifer Dobner
The Associated Press
Tucson Citizen
 
SALT LAKE CITY - Just after a court order freezing some assets of a southern Utah polygamist sect, several buildings believed to be owned by the religious order were dismantled and moved, a likely violation of the judge's ruling.

In Hildale, Utah, an 18,000-square foot warehouse-type building, once the location of Cozy Log Homes mill and construction company, was dismantled over the weekend, said Sam Brower, a private investigator employed by several church dissidents.

And in Colorado City, Ariz., a 34-foot by 130-foot building near an elementary school was uprooted from its concrete foundation and moved - somewhere - over the weekend.

"They cleaned it out," said Brower, who videotaped and photographed some of the work over the weekend. "I gave them a copy of the (temporary restraining order) and told them they had no authority to even be there any longer, that the trustees were no longer in charge."

Last week a 3rd District Court judge installed a Salt Lake certified public accountant as the special fiduciary for the United Effort Plan Trust, an arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, temporarily removing the fund's six trustees, including the reclusive church leader Warren Jeffs.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff petitioned for the order, arguing that church leaders have systematically sold off land in the trust to a small, select group of people, leaving most members without trust benefits.

The trust was formed in the 1940s with assets from church members pooled together to be shared. Virtually all of the property in Hildale and Colorado City, where most church members live, has been part of the trust.

It was not clear Thursday whether the two dismantled buildings were still owned by the trust.

If they are, then the removals are "likely contempt of the order," said Shurtleff, who got wind of the moves over the Memorial Day holiday. "I guess I'm not surprised anymore at what happens down there."

Shurtleff said authorities are attempting to serve notice of the judge's order, and a subsequent filing requesting specific information about trust holdings on Jeffs and the five other known trustees: Truman Barlow, Winston Blackmore, LeRoy Jeffs, William E. Jessop (aka William Timpson) and James Zitting.

Attempts by The Associated Press on Thursday to reach trustees by telephone were unsuccessful.

Warren and LeRoy Jeffs also did not reply to a letter faxed to an FLDS-owned ranch in Eldorado, Texas.

But Texas authorities did serve notice of the court order on both of those men Wednesday through FLDS representatives who came to the sheriff's office in Eldorado, Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said.

"The best thing that we could tell them was that if they couldn't get the papers to Jeffs, to get them to their attorney," Doran said.

Doran also said he flew over the 2,000 acre FLDS ranch Wednesday afternoon and noticed no unusual activity on the property, where the church is building its first known temple. An unknown number of church members are living there, including Warren Jeffs, Shurtleff has said.

Brower and others in Hildale say they have long expected buildings to start disappearing. Over the past year, hundreds of faithful church members have mysteriously packed up and moved, presumably to Eldorado.

The dismantling of Cozy Log Homes began sometime last Friday night, hours after the judge's ruling, Brower said.

Huge flood lights, six cranes, a backhoe and a forklift moved in and took apart the building, several outbuildings and large heavy equipment, including wood chippers, Brower said.

A Washington County sheriff's deputy also documented the move and at one point, when workers were uncooperative, put one man in handcuffs and temporary custody, department spokesman Rob Tersigni said.
 
tucsoncitizen.com
Originally published June 2, 2005
 
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