FLDS attorneys want out of 2 cases

ST. GEORGE — A Salt Lake City legal firm is seeking to withdraw as counsel for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in two civil cases filed against it in 3rd District Court.

The legal firm of Snow, Christensen & Martineau has long represented the FLDS church and its charitable trust, the United Effort Plan, in court matters.

According to the motion, filed late Thursday before Judge Stephen L. Henriod, withdrawal is permitted under Utah's Rule of Professional Conduct because "the clients insist upon a course of conduct with which their lawyers have a fundamental disagreement."

Withdrawal is also required because the firm's lawyers have been discharged from representing the defendants in the two cases, according to the motion filed by firm attorney Rod Parker. The motion to withdraw does not affect the firm's commitment in other pending court cases involving the FLDS church or the UEP.

The two cases involved in Thursday's filing involve the FLDS church and its reclusive president, Warren Jeffs, and Sam Barlow, a former marshal in the FLDS town of Colorado City, Ariz. Also named is the United Effort Plan Trust, a charitable entity that owns most of the land in the twin cities of Hildale, Washington County, and Colorado City, Ariz.

One case alleges that Jeffs and other male leaders banish young men from their homes in order to increase the availability of young brides for plural marriage. The FLDS church preaches polygamy as a central tenet and faithful FLDS men often have three or more wives who each bear numerous children.

A second civil suit accuses Jeffs and two of his brothers of sexually abusing one of their nephews when the boy was around 5 years old. The FLDS church and its leaders are accused in that suit of actively knowing of the abuse and doing nothing to stop it. Both cases seek a jury trial with unspecified damages.

Also filed on Thursday was a motion to require the plaintiffs in both cases to notify the Utah Attorney General and all persons living on UEP land of any pending default judgments that could arise against the defendants.

FLDS members living on UEP land, which includes nearly all of the 7,000 people living in Hildale and Colorado City, do not own their homes or property and are considered tenants at will by the FLDS church and UEP.

In recent years, several disaffected members of the FLDS church have sued to retain possession of their homes built on UEP land. They argued that the UEP would be "unjustly enriched" if the FLDS church were allowed to evict them without fair compensation, and the judge agreed, although appeals have been filed.