Salt Lake City — The key players in a seven-year-old legal dispute over homes and property belonging to a polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs on the Utah-Arizona border will be back in court Tuesday.
The hearing is scheduled before 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg in Salt Lake City is the latest step in the process of coming up with a plan to redistribute property in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. In November, the Utah Attorney General's office laid out options during a town hall with current and former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Attorneys from the Utah and Arizona attorney generals offices will be at the hearing, as well as the court-appointed manager of the trust that holds the properties, Bruce Wisan, and his attorney.
Wisan said all sides have expressed interest in giving members of the sister communities control of who gets what homes and land, perhaps by creating a board to oversee the process. But he said that Judge Lindberg has concerns about finding a truly independent commission. Lindberg must approve any plan the sides agree on.
Utah took over a church trust that controls the properties in 2005 amid allegations of mismanagement by Jeffs and other church leaders. The state, which has a statutory duty to protect charitable trusts, stepped in because the trustees failed to respond to lawsuits.
A November 2012 federal appeals court ruling cleared the way for the state to break up the church trust and sell homes, businesses and farms in the two small towns.
Jeffs is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting two underage girls he considered his brides. He continues to try to lead the sect of about 10,000 people from jail. The sect is a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.
Some former followers Jeffs have left the sect, but stayed in the community and continue to follow the basic principles of the faith. William Jessop, Jeffs' former bodyguard, is leading one such group.
At the November town hall in Colorado City, the Utah Attorney's General Office presented four ideas for handling the property: create a board of trustees that can function with limited court involvement; dissolve the trust and lett the community decide how to redistribute the properties; dissolve the trust, auction off properties and give people credits to buy them; and negotiate a new settlement.
The properties were estimated to be worth at least $100 million.