From Deseret News archives:

UEP Trust waiting on FLDS probe

Published: Thursday, June 5, 2008 12:07 a.m. MDT
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SAN ANGELO, Texas — Lawyers for the court-controlled real-estate holdings arm of the Fundamentalist LDS Church say they will wait until a criminal investigation into the polygamous sect subsides before pushing subpoenas to see evidence.

The United Effort Plan Trust's court-appointed special fiduciary wants to see evidence that was seized by authorities during the raid on the YFZ Ranch. Subpoenas were served on prosecutors here, but no hearing has been scheduled on the matter.

"The subpoena will stay in place until they've taken care of job one," Sam Allen, a San Angelo attorney retained by the UEP Trust, told the Deseret News on Wednesday. "When they've done their priority of investigating materials and how they decide to address the criminal case."

A judge on Monday ordered an agricultural financial institution to give up information about the funding of the ranch.

"We're just tracking assets," said Bruce Wisan, the special fiduciary of the UEP Trust.

Wisan is seeking information about the UEP Trust's management before the courts took over, as well as any assets to satisfy an $8.8 million judgment against FLDS leader Warren Jeffs and other former trustees who were accused of mismanaging it.

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Jeffs was convicted last year in Utah of rape as an accomplice in the arranged marriage of a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. He was sentenced to two terms of five years to life in prison.

An Arizona judge dropped four of eight charges against Jeffs on Wednesday, saying a state incest law does not apply to the arranged marriages of two teenage girls and their older male relatives.

Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn ruled that the Arizona law only applies if both participants in the sexual activity are older than 18, and that the law does not apply to half cousins.

In both of the marriages Jeffs is accused of arranging, the girls were under 18 and were their husbands' half cousins.

Neither the prosecution nor the defense in the case could be reached for comment.

Jeffs is still charged in Arizona as an accomplice with four counts of sexual conduct with a minor stemming from the marriages of the two girls.

Jeffs remains jailed in Kingman as he awaits his Arizona trial. No date has been set.

The Deseret News first reported last month that Wisan issued subpoenas to Tom Green County, Texas, prosecutors — seeking evidence seized in the raid on the YFZ Ranch. Wisan wants to know about the financing of the ranch and the FLDS' first-ever temple.

Recent comments

A half cousin is a child of your mom or dad's half brother or half...

John Lambert | June 5, 2008 at 8:10 p.m.

The reasons the court appointed a trustee to oversee the FLDS trust...

Interloper | June 5, 2008 at 6:12 p.m.

hey Anonymous 4:58pm - you are YFZ - may I ask you a question,...

realitycheck | June 5, 2008 at 5:46 p.m.

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