Polygamous trust manager enters plea on sex charge

Polygamous trust manager enters plea on sex charge

(Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Pool)


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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The court-appointed manager of a multimillion-dollar property trust once controlled by polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is pleading no contest to a charge of patronizing a prostitute, his lawyer said Friday.

Prosecutors have agreed to dismiss the misdemeanor charge if Bruce Wisan, 68, has no new offenses over the next year and continues counseling with his wife, attorney Greg Skordas said.

Wisan did not attend a court hearing Friday. Skordas entered the plea with an affidavit filed with a Taylorsville justice court judge outside Salt Lake City.

"I think it was just in everyone's best interest to resolve the case," Skordas said. A state court judge hasn't ruled on a motion to replace Wisan as head of the approximately $100 million trust located along the Utah-Arizona border, court records show.

Prosecutor Tracy Cowdell said investigators had enough evidence to convict, but the plea deal is a good resolution to the case.

A contempt-of-court charge filed after Wisan failed to appear to testify against the alleged prostitute will also be dropped, and Wisan will pay $680 in court fees as part of the plea deal, Skordas said.

Wisan was found in a motel room with a 26-year-old woman last March by police investigating an assault complaint involving the woman's "manager," prosecutors said. Wisan said he met the woman on the Internet and was helping her financially, though he denied sexual contact, according to police.

Wisan, an accountant, was appointed to manage the trust in 2005 after it was seized by the state amid allegations of mismanagement by Jeffs and other trustees.

Jeffs' polygamous sect is known as The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the mainstream church and its 15 million members worldwide abandoned the practice in 1890 and strictly prohibit it.

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