Jeffs giving UEP trust attorneys headaches

SALT LAKE CITY — Warren Jeffs may be a convicted felon serving prison time, but attorneys for the United Effort Plan Trust say that hasn't stopped the FLDS leader from causing problems for them and, in turn, for his current and former followers.

From behind bars, Jeffs has instructed a "shadow elite" composed of Fundamentalist LDS Church leaders, such as Willie Jessop, to block any effort by a court-appointed fiduciary, Bruce Wisan, to administer the trust, according to a memorandum filed Thursday in 3rd District Court by UEP attorneys.

"These instructions included the hiding and destruction of documents and directing municipal government leaders," the court filing states.

Jeffs is serving two sentences of five years to life in prison on a two-count conviction of accomplice to rape stemming from a "spiritual marriage" he presided over between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. He faces additional charges in Arizona and Texas, as well as federal charges tied to his attempt to flee from authorities, which landed him on the FBI's Most Wanted list for a time.

Rod Parker, a Salt Lake attorney who represents FLDS members opposed to the fiduciary's plans for the trust, calls the allegations that Jeffs is still in control of the sect from prison "outrageous." He characterized it as a tactic Wisan is using to "divert people's attention from his own failure as the fiduciary."

"He's at war with the beneficiaries of the trust. He openly acknowledges it," Parker said. "He calls it a psychological war. That's what this is when they put this kind of stuff out. This has nothing to do with the administration of the trust."

The $100 million-plus trust holds most of the homes and property in Hildale, Utah; Colorado City, Ariz.; and Bountiful, British Columbia, Canada — communities long dominated by members of the FLDS Church. The trust was seized by Utah's courts in 2005 after state attorneys alleged Jeffs — then a fugitive from Arizona criminal charges — had used trust assets for personal benefit and left it vulnerable to liquidation from default judgments in civil lawsuits filed in 2004.

Wisan was appointed by 3rd District Court Judge Denise Lindberg to serve as fiduciary of the reformed trust, which eliminated the communal property nature of the trust — considered a basic tenet of FLDS teachings — in favor of private property ownership. He contends that statements dictated by Jeffs in documents attached to Thursday's court filing show that the man some consider a prophet is still calling the shots.