Salt Lake City - A Utah judge has extended the deadline to apply for a board of trustees being formed to take over a state-run trust that once belonged to Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect on the Arizona-Utah border.
Pushing the deadline back to Sept. 30 will allow Third District Court Judge Denise Lindberg to consider four applications that came in after the original July deadline, and give time for others who may still be considering. That means there are 17 applicants to date.
Joni Jones, Utah assistant attorney general, said the move will benefit the communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona "The goal is to get as many qualified individuals as possible," Lindberg said in a recent news release announcing the extension.
Lindberg must choose at least five people for the board. Members can be from anywhere, but must demonstrate the ability to make decisions independently of any outside influence.
The names of the applicants were being withheld.
The trust holds 750 homes and a scattering of other properties estimated to be worth $118 million, said Bruce Wisan, a Salt Lake City accountant who was put in charge of the trust when it was seized by Utah in 2005 over allegations of mismanagement by Jeffs and other leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Many of the estimated 7,500 people living in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, are still followers of Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting two underage girls he considered his brides. He is trying to lead the sect from jail.
The sect is a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.
None of his followers are expected to be on the board because he has prohibited them from participating.
The board will likely be faced with difficult decisions.
Wisan predicts there will be multiple claims on at least one-third of the 750 homes in the trust. Some homes were built by one person then maintained and lived in by another, he said. In other cases, several different people have lived in a house over the past two decades.
After having the homes tied up in a lengthy court battle, residents are eager for resolution.