Owen Allred, the leader of one of Utah's largest polygamous churches, has died. He was 91.
Allred, president of the 6,000-member Apostolic United Brethren, based in the Salt Lake City suburb of Bluffdale, died Monday.
"His goal in life and with our people was to teach us to keep the laws of the land ... to serve our fellow men, not to be selfish," said his son, Carl.
Carl Allred said his father will be succeeded by Lamoine Jensen, the second-most senior member of the church's Council of Twelve. He said the senior member is elderly, has health problems and felt it better not to take on the responsibilities. Jensen was the unanimous choice of the council, he said Tuesday.
Owen Allred succeeded his brother, Dr. Rulon Allred, as leader of the church after the brother was shot to death in 1977 by followers of the late Ervil LeBaron, the head of a polygamist cult believed responsible for at least two dozen murders.
When allegations of impropriety surfaced within the Kingston church in 1998, Owen Allred offered to meet with state officials, pointing out the Brethren opposed arranged marriages or intermarriage between relatives - practices attributed to some other polygamist sects. He never apologized for the church's practice of plural marriage, however.
Owen Allred had faulted The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for abandoning polygamy to appease the federal government to get statehood, but in 2000 said he supported the state's ban on polygamy.
Polygamy was abandoned by the Mormon church more than a century ago and it excommunicates members who advocate it, but it is estimated that tens of thousands in Utah and about 30,000 people across the West continue the practice.
In March 2003, a judge ruled in a civil suit that leaders and members of Brethren bilked a woman out of $1.54 million in a 1989 real estate deal. Virginia Hill was awarded the $1.54 million plus more than $1.8 million in interest.
The judge also held that Allred laundered thousands of dollars and conspired to steal more. The judge ordered Allred to pay damages of $30,000 to Hill.