Salt Lake City, USA - Nine months after she halted its sale, 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg will again consider a proposal to sell a farm that has become a battlefield for a controversial polygamous sect, a court-appointed fiduciary and attorneys general in two states.
Lindberg has set a tightly formatted, three-hour hearing Wednesday on the sale of 438 acres from Berry Knoll Farm -- a sale opposed by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City.
Several thousand FLDS members are expected to gather outside the court to signal their objection to the sale and to Lindberg's recent ruling rejecting a proposal that would have returned trust property to the FLDS church.
Representatives of other fundamentalist Mormon groups and organizations, such as Principle Voices, also plan to participate to voice opposition to "any ruling that deprives polygamists of the right to organize or manage trust with their own assets."
The farm is part of the United Effort Plan Trust, which holds virtually all land in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. It also has holdings in Bountiful, British Columbia. A majority of residents of the twin towns belong to the sect, led by Warren S. Jeffs.
The trust was created in 1942 to support the community's effort to live in a religiously directed "Holy United Effort" and protect properties from seizures during crackdowns on polygamy.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff requested the court takeover of the trust in 2005 after accusing former trustees of mismanagement and the sect of failing to defend its assets from two lawsuits.
Since then, lawsuits involving the trust have multiplied and it is currently about $3 million in debt, money owed primarily to fiduciary Bruce R. Wisan and his attorneys.
Wisan wants to sell more than half of the 711-acre farm to Berry Knoll Farms LLC., a holding company created in November by Kenneth C. Knudson, for about $3 million. Knudson is a resident of a separate polygamous community known as Centennial Park, which abuts the farmland and has historic ties to the FLDS.
Wisan said Tuesday he believes the "highest, best use" of the property is to develop it, but the FLDS say that is contrary to trust beneficiaries' interests and dilutes the trust's holdings -- something the state-orchestrated takeover was supposed to guard against.
Rod Parker, an attorney for the FLDS, sent Shurtleff a letter this week charging him with letting the trust's assets be frittered away while the majority of its beneficiaries have been treated with "outright hostility.
"The beneficiaries have suffered far more detriment than they would have suffered if default judgments had been entered in the original lawsuits," Parker wrote.
As for Berry Knoll, FLDS members donated the farmland to the sect, deeming it consecrated to the church, and over the years used it to support the community. The land also holds historical and religious significance: It was here that members kept watch for Arizona law officers who raided the community in 1953, and a former fundamentalist leader prophesied that a temple would one day be built near the knoll.
Lindberg froze the sale last November after Shurtleff's office asked for time to pursue a settlement of litigation involving the trust. Lindberg reset the property sale after the FLDS balked at paying court-ordered fees. She also recently rejected settlement proposals put forth by Shurtleff and the FLDS, primarily because they returned most of the trust to the sect and were not, she said, religiously neutral.
Wisan and the Arizona Attorney General's Office also objected to the settlement deals, as did a group of non-FLDS members.
Now, Shurtleff sees only more litigation ahead -- especially if the judge, as he expects, approves the sale. He plans to send his federal litigation team to Wednesday's hearing because "we'll have to get back into that now."
FLDS members filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court last year, arguing that the judge violated their religious rights when she reformed the trust in 2005 and eliminated its religious purpose. That lawsuit is still pending and Wisan's attorneys have agreed to proceed with the federal hearing if the sale is approved.
Shurtleff agreed Lindberg's latest ruling is problematic.
"Her own ruling is not religiously neutral," he said. "She has to find a way to protect the interests of all beneficiaries of the reformed trust, and that [the FLDS] is the majority of the population down there."