FLDS pays Montezuma County taxes
 
By Tom Vaughan
The Mancos Times
 
In last week’s story on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Mancos TImes reported tax delinquency on the properties owned by representatives of the polygamous sect in the Mancos Valley. That situation has been corrected. According to the county treasurer’s office, David Allred — the 2003 purchaser of record of 60 acres at 15252 CR 39, and son-in-law of FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs — paid the taxes on that parcel on April 28 with a check that was returned for insufficient funds. On June 27, Allred sent a cashier’s check for the $6,389.77 tax bill, plus $127.80 in interest accrued while the bill was delinquent.

Allred is also president of Sherwood Management Group, Inc., the firm with a Mesquite, Nevada, postal box address that purchased another 60-acre parcel at 15976 CR 39 in 2004. The $824.42 county tax bill on that property was paid by money order on April 28.

In the meantime, legal actions beset the FLDS leaders on two fronts. A Utah court is scheduled on July 21 to name new trustees to manage the United Effort Plan Trust, a charitable trust that holds assets in Utah, Arizona and British Columbia estimated to be worth millions of dollars.

The UEP has appeared to be under the sole control of Jeffs for more than two years, and the attorney generals of Utah and Arizona have gone to court to stop his alleged looting of the trust. The assets have been frozen and a new set of trustees proposed. Since then, at least two groups have presented the court with other names to be considered for appointment to trustee positions.

In tomorrow’s Cortez Journal, a legal notice will be published on behalf of the Child Protection Project, an anti-polygamy group that includes widely-known anti-FLDS activist Flora Jessop. The group is proposing a slate of eight names as trustees, including six women — a break from the patriarchal way the FLDS has always done business.

In addition, the group has filed objections to 10 trustees who had previously been proposed, which number included two women.

Other legal actions threaten more than the liquidity of Warren Jeffs and his key associates. Warrants for Jeffs’ arrest on two felony counts relating to sexual misconduct with a minor were issued in Mohave County, Ariz., based on grand jury indictments on June 10. As the Times goes to press, Jeffs has not been arrested and his location is unknown.

Patrice St. Germain reported in the St. George, Utah, Spectrum on Saturday that six Mohave County Sheriff’s vehicles and a law enforcement helicopter descended on Colorado City at the end of a closed meeting that included representatives of the Arizona and Utah attorneys general and those who have contributed to the UEP.

Randy Mankin, editor of the Eldorado Success, located near another FLDS compound in Schleicher County, Texas, reported last week that the same grand jury that brought the indictments against Jeffs brought similar felony charges against three of his Colorado City associates, Randy Barlow (32), Kelly Fischer (38) and Dale Barlow (47).

In 1953, Arizona state authorities led a massive raid on the Colorado City polygamist stronghold, arresting male heads of families and sending children into foster care. Public opinion turned against the governor and the state has been hesitant to interfere in the polygamist community since then.

Now the tide appears to be turning. Mohave County Attorney Matthew Smith appears to be aggressively prosecuting polygamist men who marry or engage in sex with underage females. On the Utah side of Short Creek, the traditional name for the twin communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, courts have denied Warren Jeffs access to the UEP assets and will soon begin an accounting of the trust’s management.
 
The Mancos Times
Originally published July 13, 2005
 
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