Attorneys ask for trustees of FLDS finances
 
By Rachel Olsen
The Spectrum
Warren Jeffs

Jeffs

ST. GEORGE -- New trustees are being requested for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' financial arm, United Effort Plan, by the same attorneys representing individuals bringing lawsuits against the church, its leaders and the UEP.

The request comes because the trust is not defending itself in the lawsuits in which it is named as a defendant.

In December, the longtime attorney for the FLDS church, Rod Parker, and the Snow, Christensen & Martineau law firm petitioned the court to be released from representing the FLDS church and the UEP in the two lawsuits recently filed against the entities and other individual parties, including FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs.

One lawsuit was filed by a nephew of the FLDS prophet who alleged that FLDS leaders, including Jeffs, sexually abused him. Jeffs denied those claims in a written statement issued from his then-lawyer.

The other case Parker asked to be removed from involves a group known as the "Lost Boys," male individuals who claim they were kicked out of their homes in the predominately FLDS area of Hildale and Colorado City.

Sam Brower, a private investigator hired to find Jeffs, said the request of new trustees for the UEP would free people.

Instead of living in fear that their homes would be taken away from them, individuals living on UEP property would be able to see those family members kicked out of the FLDS church, Brower said.

The whole idea of getting new trustees for the trust, which controls almost all property in the twin cities where the church is based, is to set up a sort of receivership and make homes and property more secure, Brower said.

Paul Murphy, spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office, said the attorney general's office filed an acknowledgment of the notice and a statement of no objection. However, the primary work on the request is being conducted by Roger Hoole, an attorney in Salt Lake City representing the plaintiffs in both of the afore-mentioned lawsuits.

The FLDS church constitutes the largest polygamist group in North America, with the church teaching the practice of polygamy as a religious principle.

The FLDS church traces its roots to Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1890, the LDS church officially abolished plural marriage and members practicing polygamy have been excommunicated and barred from LDS temples.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Saturday, February 19, 2005
 
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