Judge strips polygamist leaders of $150 million trust
 
By Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic - Flagstaff Bureau
 
SALT LAKE CITY - A Utah probate judge on Wednesday stripped the powerful polygamist leaders of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, from the financial trust that oversees the neighboring towns in a move expected to bring about widespread changes in the nation's largest multiple-marriage sect.

A hearing was scheduled for July 21 to appoint a new board of trustees over the towns' United Effort Plan trust.

That board is expected to be considerably different from the polygamist patriarchs, none of whom appeared in court Wednesday to defend their trustee positions, who have financially controlled the town since the trust was formed 65 years ago.

Among the seven replacement trustees proposed are two former polygamist wives - Margaret Cooke and Carolyn Jessop - who fled Colorado City with their children; and two former prominent residents of the town - Rayo Johnson and John Nielsen - who had disputes with sect leaders and were banished from the area, losing their families in the process.

The trust is worth an estimated $150 million and includes about 700 homes and 30 businesses within the two towns along with land holdings in the area.

Some former Colorado City residents have claimed that as much as $50 million already has been siphoned from the trust by the sect's leader, Warren Jeffs and his most loyal followers.

But Tim Bodily, an assistant Utah attorney general, disagrees.

"It appears that we were fortunate in disrupting sales transactions in recent weeks," Bodily said, referring to earlier Utah state court actions which had placed a freeze on the trust.

For Jeffs, who was among the trustees removed, it was the latest in a series of setbacks for retaining his control over the FLDS sect. He has not been seen in public since being indicted by Mohave County for sex crimes with minors earlier this month.

The state of Arizona raided the offices of the Colorado City Unified School District three weeks ago, seizing computers and documents in an ongoing criminal probe of misuse of funds. Jeffs also has been named as a defendant in two civil complaints which allege sexual abuse of minors.
 
azcentral.com
Originally published June 22, 2005
 
Back