Hearings set in Chatwin eviction case
 FLDS church to bring case to Arizona court
 
By Jane Zhang
jzhang@thespectrum.com
Ross Chatwin

Chatwin

ST. GEORGE -- Born and raised in Colorado City as a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Ross Chatwin had always believed he belonged to "a superior people" who would eventually take over the world with the prophet at the helm.

But since he declared war on the polygamist church's leader Warren Jeffs about two weeks ago, Chatwin has discovered a gentile's world with "some really good people."

"I basically broke the system here and said, 'No more,'" said Chatwin, 35, who fell out of favor last March and received his first eviction notice in November. "It helped me to wake up. Luckily, it's not too late for me. I have my wife's support."

But his wake-up call didn't come without a price.

The church, which owns most of the area's land and property, filed a lawsuit to evict Chatwin last Thursday at Arizona Superior Court in Kingman, Ariz., with a 15-minute initial appearance scheduled for this Thursday and court hearings expected in 10 days with Judge James Chavez, FLDS attorney Rod Parker said.

Chatwin, Parker said, lost his right to live on church land because he pursued plural wives on his own. He was accused of forcible detainment, meaning he refused to leave the property against the landlord's wish. As "tenants-at-will," Parker said, church members build their own houses, but all the property and improvements belong to the church and its trust, United Effort Plan.

"They know they don't own the property," he said. "That was what they were told."

Not so, Chatwin argued. Church members, he said, had always been told they were part of the UEP until Jeffs, 47, started seeking absolute control of the 10,000 FLDS members in the border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz. Since Jan. 10, the self-proclaimed prophet has expelled at least 25 disobedient men, including then-Colorado City Mayor Dan Barlow. Many of them have since left town, leaving their houses, wives and children to Jeffs' control.

Chatwin, who was excommunicated last November, chose to fight the FLDS church. On Tuesday morning, he found a pro bono attorney from Arizona Community Legal Services, Joan C. Dudley, to defend him against the UEP. In the courtroom, he said, the increasingly secretive FLDS church will lie exposed with "real issues," such as racketeering, organized crime and welfare fraud. At stake are not only his house, Chatwin said, but the welfare of others who are watching.

"They can't see the trees because they are so close to the forest," Chatwin said. "It's going to be huge when it's all done. This is just the start."

In his 12 years defending the UEP, Parker said he filed at least two other eviction cases in Mohave County, Ariz. One of them, Shem Fischer, who picked up transients along the highway and used them as servants, was successfully evicted, Parker said. But the other, Milton Holm, who built a 5,000-square-foot home on church property, won against the UEP in Judge Chavez's court last May. Holm was excommunicated in 2000 after his wife, Lenore, refused to give permission to have her 16-year-old daughter married as a plural wife.

Sitting on a red dirt road in Colorado City, Chatwin's 1,700-square-foot green home was built by his brother, David, who left the church to follow Winston Blackmore in Canada. Before moving in on Jan. 2, 2001, Chatwin said he traded with the UEP a 1,000-square-foot home with a large garage, where he operated an auto mechanic and body shop.

"We are not giving up," said Chatwin, who was served court papers at 7:50 a.m. Monday. "This whole house is my house."

He sent a 10-page letter to Parker on Friday, saying he would not leave without reimbursement from the church. But Parker, who called the home Chatwin built "a squalid auto shop," said, "that's not how it works" in an eviction case.

Chatwin was expelled because he pursued two teenage girls for plural marriages, Parker said. Even more, Chatwin has ignored the church's letter to collect property taxes and the recent eviction notice served last Tuesday. Despite the prophet's warning, Lori Chatwin, Ross' only wife for 12 years, has chosen to stay with him.

Chatwin said he never pursued girls for plural marriages. Instead, he said, one girl came to his home seeking help to leave her "oppressive" home. Before this allegation, Chatwin said, the FLDS church leaders had accused him of being "full of pride" and dishonest trading. He said he never found out whom he "dishonestly traded with."

"They tried to play a game with me," he said. "When you kick a skunk, you can't help but getting stink on you. I kicked a skunk."

Chatwin has appeared on national television and in various newspapers and magazines since Jan. 23, when he became the first man in Colorado City to hold a news conference, decrying Jeffs as a "Hitler-like dictator." The decision to speak out, Chatwin said, was made after talking to an excommunicated man, who became "broken-hearted" after losing seven wives and 54 children to Jeffs.

"We are tired of having families being destroyed," Chatwin said. "The front is coming out right now, but the bigger picture is still yet to come."
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Wednesday, February 4, 2004
 
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