Judge rejects officer's effort to avoid questioning on FLDS
 Deposition ordered, and the man must pay attorney costs
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
A judge has denied a police officer's request for a protective order to stop lawyers from questioning him about the Fundamentalist LDS Church and captured polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.

Deputy Hildale/Colorado City Town Marshal Helaman Barlow's request was not only denied but a judge granted a lawyer's motion to compel him to answer deposition questions.

"Mr. Barlow is being, in some cases, deliberately obtuse," Judge Denise P. Lindberg said during a hearing Monday in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court.

She also ordered him to pay attorney costs for the court battle. Lawyers said that would amount to about $10,000.

Barlow will have to continue his deposition concerning missing property that belongs to the United Effort Plan Trust, the financial arm of the FLDS Church. However, questions about the polygamist church and its leadership may be tweaked a little bit.

"When counsel are there, the questioning usually is more narrow and will be less problematic," Barlow's lawyer Peter Stirba told the Deseret Morning News outside of court.

Stirba accused attorneys of going on a "fishing expedition" for information unrelated to property that vanished in the FLDS-enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. Stirba said he plans to sit in on the questions when the deposition continues. The judge said she was willing to sit in — and even travel to Hildale to do it.

"If necessary I will travel to the area of deposition," she said Monday. "I will rule question by question."

In prior hearings concerning the UEP Trust, the judge has expressed interest in travelling to the polygamous community. Lawyers for the court-appointed special fiduciary of the UEP Trust said they would have to find a suitable building and appropriate security.

In 2005, the courts took control of the UEP Trust amid allegations that Jeffs and other top FLDS leaders had been siphoning money and property from it. Lindberg appointed Bruce Wisan to act as a fiduciary for the UEP. Shortly afterward, property began to disappear from Hildale and Colorado City.

During Monday's hearing, Lindberg also ordered Wisan's lawyers to sit down with the attorney for a Cedar City-area farm to determine if any missing property turned up there. Wisan's lawyers suggested that Harker Farms may have some ties to the FLDS Church and the UEP Trust.

The judge recently signed a reform plan for the UEP Trust, which controls homes, businesses and land in the border towns. During court, Lindberg joked that she is up to "volume 19" on the filings in the gargantuan case.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Thursday, November 30, 2006
 
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