Deadline today for resolving FLDS Church land fight

Despite some 40 hours of negotiations, it's unlikely a full settlement can be reached today in a dispute over a land trust once run by polygamous church leader Warren Jeffs, said Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

The $114 million communal property trust is an arm of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. It holds most of the land and homes in Hildale, Utah; Colorado City, Ariz.; and a church enclave in Bountiful, British Columbia.

The Utah courts took control of the UEP in 2005 after allegations of mismanagement by Jeffs, who was then on the run from criminal charges in Utah and Arizona.

A proposed settlement is due today to a 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg, who ultimately will decide whether any proposal is fair.

In November, Lindberg placed a stay on all trust litigation and management activity pending the outcome of efforts to reach a "global" settlement that satisfied all parties.

On Friday, Shurtleff said his office and attorneys for the FLDS Church were close to a deal that would return control of the trust and most of its holdings back to the church.

He said his office expects to submit that proposal to Lindberg today, even though neither the attorney general of Arizona nor court-appointed fiduciary Bruce Wisan had agreed to the proposal.

"They won't accept it," Shurtleff said Friday after participating in a panel discussion about polygamy and the law during a conference sponsored by the Center for Studies on New Religions in Salt Lake City.

Shurtleff said he didn't know whether Wisan and Arizona would submit their own proposals or simply object to the proposal his office submits to the court.

FLDS attorneys Rod Parker and Ken Okazaki said they were hopeful that a joint proposal could be filed today, but acknowledged they were "not close" to resolving differences with Wisan and Arizona.

"We'd like to see a peaceful resolution of the disputes," Okazaki said Friday.

The UEP was formed in 1942 to fulfill a core tenet of their beliefs — known as the Holy United Order — which calls for the sharing of assets for the benefit of those who adhere to church teachings.

Wisan has converted the trust into a secular entity and allowed former church members to return to the community to claim their share of assets.

At the direction of Jeffs, church members have largely ignored Wisan's management of the trust and have cooperated with him only when threatened with evictions.