Utah AG demands settlement of land trust dispute
 
By Jennifer Dobner
The Associated Press
The Sierra Vista Herald - Sierra Vista, Arizona
 
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s attorney general is demanding a settlement in a five-year dispute over control of a communal land trust once held by a polygamous church led by Warren Jeffs.

The United Effort Plan Trust holds most of the property and homes in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., the twin border towns that serve as home for most members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Valued at more than $110 million, the trust has been under the control of the Utah courts since 2005 after allegations of mismanagement by Jeffs and other church leaders.

State attorneys said church leaders had used trust assets for their own benefit and failed to defend civil lawsuits that left the trust vulnerable to liquidation.

Shurtleff’s office attempted last year to negotiate a settlement with the parties, including the FLDS, a court-appointed accountant and the Arizona attorney general’s office, but a judge rejected the plan.

In a letter sent last week, Shurtleff gives FLDS attorneys 30 days to settle and suggested a proposal from Bruce Wisan, who manages the trust for the court, offers the best framework for a deal.

"Some items may need to tweaked, and other may need to be massaged, a little further, but on the whole it appears to me that if the parties are to achieve a settlement the best chance for that is to work from this proposal," Shurtleff wrote. "This matter has gone on long enough."

Rod Parker, an attorney for the FLDS, said the letter was "out of left field."

"The conclusion we draw from that is that it’s a political statement designed to help him evade responsibility in the future," Parker said.

The FLDS can’t accept the Wisan proposal because it requires the FLDS to violate a core religious tenet calling for the sharing of assets for the benefit of those who adhere to church teachings, Parker said.

A telephone call seeking further comment from Shurtleff was not immediately returned.

Under Wisan’s proposal, Hildale and Colorado City would be subdivided, allowing private ownership of trust land. Property would be given to former church members who can prove legitimate beneficiary claims.

Public properties — a cemetery and city parks — would have to remain open to all and deeded to an appropriate government entity.

Val Oveson, a spokesman for Wisan, said there was ongoing concern about whether FLDS members at the negotiating table had authority to make decisions while Jeffs is incarcerated.

Jeffs was jailed in 2007 after a Utah conviction on felony charges of rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 marriage of an underage follower to her cousin. He’s currently an Arizona jail awaiting trials on felony charges related to underage marriage.

FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop said the leaders of the faith who have been involved in talks have the authority to do so and the confidence of the community.

It was unclear when the sides would meet.
 
SVHerald.com
Originally published February 3, 2010
 
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