UEP suits closer to settlement
 Also, star witness in Jeffs' case files a lawsuit against him
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
A series of multimillion-dollar personal injury lawsuits filed against the Fundamentalist LDS Church's financial arm are closer to being settled.

According to the latest report filed by the court-appointed special fiduciary of the United Effort Plan Trust, settlement negotiations with lawyers representing ex-FLDS members are ongoing.

"Counsel for the parties have met periodically and have exchanged serious settlement offers," Bruce Wisan wrote in a Dec. 6 report to the judge filed in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court.

The UEP Trust is being sued in three separate lawsuits — one filed by Warren Jeffs' nephew, Brent Jeffs; another filed by a group of teens known as "The Lost Boys"; and one filed by the woman who is testifying against Jeffs in the criminal case against the FLDS leader.

Brent Jeffs claims his uncle sexually abused him as a child while attending the Alta Academy, a now-defunct FLDS school at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Jeffs was principal of the school at the time.

"The Lost Boys" claim they were ousted from their homes and families in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., for a number of "sins."

"The Lost Boys lawsuit and the Brent Jeffs lawsuit are working on completing a settlement agreement, but it's not done yet," said Roger Hoole, their attorney. "They seem to be close with respect to the trust."

However, Hoole said the lawsuits against Warren Jeffs and the FLDS Church are still pending.

The FLDS leader was recently served in the Purgatory Jail with papers filed by a woman known in court documents as "M.J." She is accusing him of forcing her into a marriage with an older man. "M.J." is also known as "Jane Doe IV," the star witness in the criminal case against Jeffs. Her dramatic testimony about her marriage at age 14 to her 19-year-old cousin led to Jeffs being ordered to stand trial on charges of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony.

The lawsuit filed by "M.J." is still pending against the UEP Trust, but Wisan said he doesn't believe the trust should be held liable for any injuries the woman suffered at the hands of Warren Jeffs.

"There was no reference to the trust being involved in the alleged crime," fiduciary lawyer Jeffrey L. Shields said after Jeffs' preliminary hearing in St. George last week. "I didn't hear the word trust mentioned at all."

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Friday, December 22, 2006
 
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