Ex-FLDS, nonmembers drafting settlement plan over UEP trust

Nonmembers of the Fundamentalist LDS Church are coming up with their own plans to settle the legal war over the polygamous sect's real estate holdings arm.

They're expected to unveil those plans at a meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday in Centennial Park, Ariz.

"It's mostly a group of people together to show the attorney general's office that there is a large group that is not represented by the FLDS," said Katie Cox, a member of the United Effort Plan Trust's advisory board, which has also crafted its own proposal.

Proposals are coming in as lawyers representing the FLDS Church, the court-appointed special fiduciary of the UEP Trust, and the attorney generals of Utah and Arizona are involved in settlement talks. Ex-FLDS members and nonmembers who also have a stake in the land are expressing concern that their ideas may be shut out.

"They (the FLDS) say they were not given a voice. They were abandoning the place right and left. Is that our fault? No, it's not," said Michelle Chatwin, whose husband, Andrew, is an ex-FLDS member. "Should we pay the price for it? No, we shouldn't."

The UEP Trust, which controls homes and property in the twin communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., was taken over by the courts in 2005 over allegations it had been mismanaged by FLDS leaders. A judge appointed a special fiduciary, Bruce Wisan, to manage it and signed a reform plan, doing away with the communal property nature of the trust in favor of private property ownership.

For years, FLDS members were largely silent, but have recently made a series of legal challenges — arguing that the reformed trust violates their rights to freely practice their religion. When the fiduciary sought to sell farmland in Colorado City to pay debts, members sued arguing the land was prophesied to be a temple site.

A "stand down" was announced just before a hearing on the land sale and both sides began settlement talks. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff recently traveled to Hildale to meet with FLDS members, who are expected to submit their own proposal.

A draft settlement was recently given to the attorney general by Wisan, said his attorney Jeffrey L. Shields. A call to an attorney representing FLDS members was not immediately returned on Thursday.

A lawyer from the Utah Attorney General's Office and Wisan plan to attend Friday's meeting. Attorney general's spokesman Paul Murphy said they welcome all proposals before they begin hashing out a settlement.

"We've asked a lot of different people to present what would be a fair approach," Murphy said Thursday. "It's a good thing if people are going to start providing input."

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