Leader Jeffs is ruled in default in fed civil suit

The leader of a polygamous southern Utah church has been ruled in default in a federal civil lawsuit claiming he blacklisted a former member.

The clerk of U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City on Friday entered a certificate of default against Warren Jeffs, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The ruling means Jeffs has given up the right to defend himself and could be held liable for damages.

Shem Fischer, a former worker of a Hildale business who claims he was wrongfully terminated because he no longer adhered to the town's dominate FLDS faith, filed the federal lawsuit in 2002.

When Fischer's attorneys were unable to locate Jeffs to serve him with the lawsuit, they published notices earlier this year in three newspapers in areas where the FLDS Church owns or controls property — the Spectrum in St. George, the Eldorado Success in Texas and the Cortez Journal in Colorado.

The certificate of default was issued because Jeffs failed to respond within 20 days of the publications.

Fischer, a former salesman for the Forestwood Co., a wooden cabinetry business, included allegations that church officials interfered with his relationship with his employer and blacklisted him.

The majority of the 10,000 residents in Hildale and adjoining Colorado City, Ariz., belong to the FLDS Church, which practices polygamy.

The lawsuit alleges Fischer was forced out of his job because he protested the 2000 firing of a fellow employee based on the co-worker's lack of belief in FLDS doctrine and because Fischer rejected certain tenets.

The firings by the Hildale company were prompted by orders from Jeffs and other FLDS leaders for followers to cease all association with non-followers, Fischer claims.

He alleges the officials then put him on a blacklist to stop him from getting a new job. His lawsuit sought unspecified damages.

With Jeffs' default, Fischer can now either request a hearing or submit an affidavit to argue the amount of monetary damages he should be paid. Jeffs has the legal right to dispute the amount but cannot defend himself against the underlying allegations in the suit.

A certificate of default was issued late last year against the church's governing bodies: the Corporation of the President of the FLDS Church and the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the FLDS Church. Forestwood still is contesting the suit.

Jeffs and the FLDS Church also are defendants in two lawsuits in Utah's 3rd District Court. One was filed in July 2004 by Brent Jeffs accusing three of his uncles, including Warren Jeffs, of sexually assaulting him when he was a child.

A month later, a group of young men who call themselves the Lost Boys sued over what they allege was their banishment from the community. Brent Jeffs also has attempted to serve Warren Jeffs with the lawsuit through publication. The plaintiffs in both state lawsuits have requested default judgments.