Federal lawsuit filed over FLDS trust

Wisan did not return a call seeking comment. In a separate filing in 3rd District Court last week, Wisan asks a judge to allow the sale of land on the Utah-Arizona border known as the "Berry Knoll Farm" for $3 million.

"Having made a calculated decision to abandon the trust, rather than appear before this court to answer charges of neglect and malfeasance, it appears that FLDS leaders are now launching a full-scale assault against the trust and the fiduciary," Wisan's attorney Mark Callister wrote, adding: "Funds are urgently needed by the trust to pay for past debts, current trust administration and to defend legal actions filed by movants and other parties against the trust."

Parker maintains the FLDS are being deprived of constitutional rights.

"They can't practice their religion without control over their property," Parker told the Deseret News. "It has nothing to do with polygamy so much as it has to do with their ability to practice the united order. They can't do it if the state of Utah is controlling their property. The united order demands it be controlled by the bishop."

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