Accountant defends sale of FLDS cows

A court-appointed accountant in charge of a polygamous church property trust is defending the sale of cows from a southern Utah church dairy in the midst of settlement negotiations.

In 3rd District Court filings late Wednesday, attorneys for Bruce Wisan say the cash-poor United Effort Plan Trust needed an infusion of money to pay off debts. Wisan got $360,000 from the sale of cows from Harker Farm in Beryl.

The farm is a key asset in a settlement proposal that would return control of the trust and its assets to the Fundamentalist LDS Church, led by Warren Jeffs.

Wisan's attorneys want a judge to toss out a complaint about the sale made by church members. Sect members claim the June 2 sale guts the farm of critical assets and decimates its value.

In court papers, trust attorneys say Wisan took "great pains to assure that the sale would not prejudice ongoing settlement negotiations or damage the long-term interests of the Harker dairy." The sale allows for the cows to be repurchased by the farm, attorneys note.

Attorneys also said future sales of livestock could soon be necessary because the farm continues to lose money due to the below-break-even price of milk nationally.

Wisan was court-appointed to oversee the trust in 2005, after allegations of mismanagement by Jeffs and other church leaders. The farm was bought at auction by Wisan and made part of the trust in 2007 to satisfy a $8.8 million judgment against Jeffs.

A settlement proposal was submitted to the court on June 15 by the Utah Attorney General's Office. Wisan objects to the settlement and contends it favors the FLDS Church over former members of the church who may be valid trust beneficiaries.

Last week, 33 non-FLDS also filed a letter with the court stating their objection to any proposal that allows the church to reclaim the bulk of land and homes in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., which make up the majority of assets.

The primary and governing principle governing the actions of the trust should be fairness, the letter states. It's inappropriate to attribute the assets to a single subgroup, such as the followers of Warren Jeffs, the non-FLDS group wrote.

The communal trust was formed in 1942 by members of the church, which incorporated under the FLDS name in the 1990s. The UEP is based on a religious principle that calls for the sharing of assets by those who follow church tenets.

Under Wisan's management, the trust has become a secular entity that is designed to be religiously neutral in distributing assets.

FLDS members contend that restated trust, in fact, discriminates against faithful members of the church and violates their religious rights.

Jeffs remains the FLDS's religious leader, despite his incarceration after a 2007 Utah conviction for rape as an accomplice. That case stemmed from the 2001 marriage of an underage follower to her cousin.

Jeffs is in an Arizona jail awaiting trials on similar charges and has been indicted by Texas authorities for alleged bigamy and child sexual assault.