Salt Lake City, USA - Seven young men have partially settled lawsuits that led to the state's takeover of a property trust once overseen by polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs.
The agreements resolve claims against the United Effort Plan Trust, which has been under court oversight since May 2005, in a deal that includes land, an assistance fund and attorney fees.
The settlements, which still need court approval, give each plaintiff title to a 3-acre, undeveloped lot near a community park in Maxwell Canyon. The canyon is located in Hildale, which along with Colorado City, Ariz., is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Six men who sued alleged they were "systematically" driven out of the community by the church and Jeffs; the seventh alleged he was sexually abused by Jeffs about 20 years ago.
The six plaintiffs are Richard Jessop Ream, 25; Thomas Samuel Steed, 21; Don R. Fischer, 22; Dean J. Barlow, 22; Walter S. Fischer, 24; and Richard Gilbert, 22. The seventh is Brent Jeffs, 24.
The agreement also calls for a $250,000 fund for education and emergency needs of people who, like the seven young men, have been displaced from the FLDS community. And it provides $100,000 to Baltimore attorney Joanne Suder, who initially filed the lawsuits on behalf of the men.
The settlement leaves intact claims against Jeffs, the FLDS church and other individuals associated with it.
Jeffs, 51, currently is in the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, awaiting trial on two counts of being an accomplice to rape for allegedly conducting an arranged marriage in 2001 to which the 14-year-old bride had objected.
The young woman, identified as "Jane Doe" in that case, also has sued the UEP Trust under the pseudonym "M.J." Her claim is not part of the settlement.
Roger Hoole, who represented the seven men, said that from the beginning the lawsuits were about "solving problems, not seeking money."
In a statement, he said: "If these young men could send a message to their families and the FLDS people, it would simply be to stay in your homes, keep your families together and don't automatically follow the next leaders who will try to exercise control over the people."
Jeff Shields, attorney for court-appointed trust fiduciary Bruce R. Wisan, said the settlement avoids a "huge lawsuit that would have taken years to defend" and have been far more costly.
The pair of lawsuits, filed in 2004, led the Utah Attorney General's Office to seek court oversight of the United Effort Plan Trust. The state said Jeffs and other FLDS trustees had failed to defend against the lawsuits and were selling off trust assets.
A Utah judge subsequently appointed Wisan as fiduciary for the trust. "The trust has been benefited from the intervention of the Lost Boys," Wisan said Thursday. "The courts would never have had the opportunity to intervene if the Lost Boys hadn't filed that lawsuit. Their involvement on the front end was important and very critical."
He added: "The trust's position is we're happy to benefit some of the Lost Boys to help with education and housing issues. I think it is a good settlement."
Wisan said the lots in Maxwell Canyon are among the "most prized" in the community, valued at around $20,000 or more each.
Brent Jeffs filed the first lawsuit on July 29, 2004, alleging Jeffs and two of his brothers had sexually abused him about 20 years ago. Brent Jeffs claimed his uncles would leave church services, escort him out of a basement room where children gathered for Sunday school lessons and then sodomize him in a nearby bathroom.
Brent Jeffs alleged his uncles told him they were "doing God's work" and that he was not to tell anyone about their acts.
Two uncles, Leslie B. Jeffs and Blaine B. Jeffs, were dropped from the lawsuit a year ago because they had previously filed for bankruptcy, which automatically stays other court actions.
Brent Jeffs said the "whole goal" in pursuing the lawsuits was "for families to not be afraid to be families" and eliminate the threat of "having your house pulled out from under you" for disagreeing with the FLDS church.
"It is finally nice to see something positive out of all this that happened, for the Lost Boys and all of us who got kicked out and stuff," Brent Jeffs said. "It's nice to see a positive outcome on the whole thing."
A separate lawsuit was filed on Aug. 27, 2004, by six boys who alleged they were driven out of the twin towns for "trivial reasons" in order to reduce competition for wives.
Their lawsuit said they became "lost boys" as a result, adrift in a world they knew little about and cut off from family and friends.
Tom Steed, 21 and now a college student in Boulder, Colo., said he was sent away when he was 15 because he associated with non-FLDS members and watched PG-13 movies. He tried to rejoin the church a year later but said he was rebuffed by Jeffs.
The Diversity Foundation estimates that over the past decade, at least 400 teens have been driven out or fled the restrictive polygamous community, ending up in southern Utah, the Salt Lake City area or surrounding states.
Dan Fischer is the founder of the South Jordan-based Ultradent, a dental products company, and is the uncle of Don and Walter Fischer. He paid legal fees for attorneys Roger and Greg Hoole, who represented the seven men.
A former FLDS member, Dan Fischer set up the Diversity Foundation to help teens who have left the community get schooling, life skills training and jobs.
Rod Parker, an attorney who previously represented the FLDS church, has characterized the so-called "Lost Boys" as juvenile delinquents who proved unmanageable for their families.
Jeffs has preached that parents need to cut off such wayward children and avoid any contact with them, saying in a July 16, 2000, sermon that to "socialize with apostates, to join with them in any way, you are choosing to get on the devil's ground."
Many of the teens, many of whom come from plural families with 20 or more siblings, say they got in trouble at home for violating church standards - watching R-rated movies; hanging out with girls; using tobacco, alcohol or drugs; favoring modern clothes over the FLDS preferred conservative, body-covering apparel.
Dean J. Barlow, now 22, was kicked out of his home in Colorado City several years ago for smoking cigarettes. He drifted to St. George, where he lived with other exiled boys.
Richard Gilbert has said he was driven off at age 16 because he wanted to go to public school.
Some teens say they didn't believe in the FLDS faith, particularly as preached by Jeffs. Home life got tough for a number after Jeffs exiled their fathers and placed their mothers with other men.
Most of the teens have limited educations but marketable construction skills.
They have been the focal point of several legislative initiatives, including a law passed in 2006 that allows teens to petition for emancipation if they can prove the ability to provide for themselves.
A bill failed this year that would have set aside $250,000 to provide educational assistance to the FLDS teens.