Judge orders Jeffs, others to pay millions in civil lawsuit


Published/Last Modified on Saturday, March 3, 2007 12:15 PM MST


SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A judge ordered the leader of a polygamous sect and others to pay $8.8 million after they failed to respond to a lawsuit that accuses them of misconduct with church assets.


"Now that we have a judgment, can we collect on that judgment?" wondered Bruce Wisan, the court-appointed accountant overseeing a trust that holds assets of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The United Effort Plan Trust, which holds about $110 million in property, was put under Wisan's management in May 2005 while Warren Jeffs was on the run from criminal charges.

Judge Denise Lindberg allowed Wisan to collect money for professional fees and the loss of property and equipment that disappeared in the border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

Shortly after the trust was taken over, buildings and farm equipment began vanishing.

"I observed 50-plus men and a couple dozen young boys working on it," private investigator Sam Brower testified Thursday. "They were quickly tearing the building apart."

Wisan's duties include paying property taxes on church-owned real estate in the border towns. This week, he auctioned an abandoned factory in Hildale for $1.65 million to help pay bills.

Jeffs, meanwhile, is in jail awaiting trial on charges of rape as an accomplice for his alleged role in the spiritual marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her older cousin.

Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com

Copyright © 2012 Douglas Dispatch

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