Ex-FLDS member is refusing eviction

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — Ross Chatwin refuses to budge.

"I'm not going to move out. No way. I think this is my house," Chatwin said Wednesday in response to an eviction notice sent by the home's legal owner.

Chatwin's comments came several days after he held a press conference to denounce Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as a "Hitler-like dictator" who needs to be stopped.

The eviction letter, written by FLDS attorney Rod Parker and served on Chatwin late Monday afternoon, gives Chatwin five days to make up his mind.

"We're not going to kick Mr. Chatwin and his family out on the street in five days. But he does need to agree to surrender possession of UEP property. He needs to agree to be out," said Parker. "The UEP will allow him the time necessary to find another place to live and then move his family and possessions."

But Chatwin has no plans to move or respond to Parker's letter.

"My plan is to get an attorney and fight this," said Chatwin. "I'm going against someone, Warren Jeffs, who thinks he's the most powerful person in the world. It's not about the house. It's about a much more serious thing."

Chatwin, a 35-year-old father of six, was excommunicated from the FLDS Church in November. Eviction notices routinely follow such church discipline, Parker said, and Chatwin was asked several weeks ago to leave the church-owned home.

If Chatwin refuses to respond to the eviction notice, said Parker, then Chatwin is violating Arizona law.

"It's called forcible detainment," he said. "If Mr. Chatwin chooses to do that, then he will be evicted. But it will be on my timetable."

Few residents of Colorado City and its neighbor, Hildale, Utah, actually own the homes they live in. Under the FLDS Church's United Effort Plan Trust, men who are considered worthy are assigned to a home or a lot on which they can build a home. Saturdays are designated as "work days," where church members routinely help other members construct homes and complete other church projects.

Chatwin, his wife, Lori, and their children live in the basement of a sea green frame house on Willow Street, a dusty, dirt road just west of the dairy. Like many other homes in town, the house is unfinished and has no landscaping to speak of.