FLDS trust objects to a default
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
While Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs is remaining silent on a personal-injury lawsuit filed against him, lawyers for the polygamist church's financial arm are registering their objections.

In court papers filed in Cedar City's 5th District Court, lawyers for the United Effort Plan Trust registered an objection to a request for a default judgment against Jeffs, the FLDS Church and the UEP. A woman known in the lawsuit as "M.J." claims that at age 14, she was forced by Jeffs to marry her 19-year-old cousin.

"M.J." is also known in criminal court papers as "Jane Doe IV," and is expected to testify against Jeffs when he faces a charge of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. Jeffs, 51, is scheduled for an April trial in St. George.

Lawyers for "M.J." have asked for a default judgment in the civil case, saying Jeffs and the FLDS Church have not responded to their lawsuit. In court papers obtained by the Deseret Morning News, lawyers for the $110 million UEP Trust said they fear that "M.J." wants to hold them "jointly and severally liable for the conduct of the defaulting defendants."

"We would hate for the court to say, 'OK, Warren and the church are liable for $10 billion, and you're liable, too,'" UEP attorney Jeffrey L. Shields said Friday.

Roger Hoole, a lawyer for "M.J.," said his client is willing to wait to decide on the damages amount.

In 2005, a judge in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court took control of the UEP Trust, amid allegations that Jeffs and other top FLDS leaders had been bleeding it. The trust was recently reformed.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Sunday, February 4, 2007
 
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