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Nov 6, 2008 8:15 am US/Central
Polygamous Sect Seeks To Block Land Sale
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ―
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Aerial view of FLDS compound in Eldorado.
KTVT / KTXA
A southern Utah polygamous church has asked a federal judge to block the proposed sale of church-owned land under state control.
Attorneys for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sought a temporary restraining order Wednesday to prevent the sale of land in the United Effort Plan Trust.
The UEP holds an estimated $110 million in communal property donated by church members.
The FLDS consider communal living -- or the Holy United Order -- an integral part of their religion and see secular management of the trust as a violation of their constitutional right to practice their religion.
In 2005, a Utah judge took control of the UEP amid allegations of mismanagement. Court-appointed trust manager Bruce Wisan now wants to sell some holdings, including Berry Knoll, a 700-plus acre site in Arizona, just south of the Utah state line, that was set aside for a future church temple.
The FLDS also has a ranch near Eldorado, Texas.
A state court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 14 in St. George's 5th District Court for a judge to hear arguments on the sale of Berry Knoll to a member of a different polygamous church formed after a leadership dispute among the FLDS. A motion to delay that hearing has also been filed by the FLDS.
Wisan's attorney, Jeff Shields, said he couldn't comment on the documents filed in Utah's U.S. District Court Wednesday because he hasn't yet read them.
"We want to have the hearing and I think what we want to do will be clear to the judge," Shields said.
The UEP is property-rich but cash poor. Wisan needs to sell the land to pay outstanding bills, including his own firm and his attorneys, for managing the trust.
On Wisan's watch, legal documents that formed the trust have been retooled. Under the newly formed trust, its beneficiaries, including current and former church members, could seek private ownership of their homes or property either through holding a deed outright, or by placing the assets in a family trust.
The FLDS contend, however that the new trust prevents them from returning the asset to the church to maintain the Holy United Order.
"This effectively requires my and my fellow (church) members to forswear any intention ever to consecrate the property to the FLDS church in fulfillment of what we believe to be a commandment of God," FLDS member Willie Jessop said in an affidavit.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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