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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A judge has denied a request for a temporary restraining order that would have prevented a court-appointed accountant from evicting people from their homes in a pair of polygamous communities on the Utah/Arizona border.
Judge Denise Lindberg says the 3rd District Court won't address issues of eviction related to the Hildale, Utah or Colorado City, Ariz., properties held in the United Effort Plan Trust.
Lindberg says the matter belongs in Washington County's 5th District Court.
Attorneys for 57 members of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sought the restraining order Tuesday, which was the deadline for paying past-due monthly assessment fees to trust accountant Bruce Wisan.
In court papers attorneys for the FLDS members and the cities said Wisan's handling of the trust, including selling off some assets and levying tax payments, amount to a breach of his responsibilities and part of a "systematic attempt" to destroy the community.
Lindberg said Wisan's performance as trust manager is a "wholly separate issue" unrelated to evictions, but she said the court would address the allegations if they were properly brought to the court. The judge issued her order without holding a hearing.
"It's not what were expecting in so much as we had anticipated that we would have an opportunity to argue the merits of our filing," said Bret Rawson, one of three Salt Lake City-based attorneys hired by the FLDS residents last week. "The best news is we can with confidence tell our clients that there is not going to be an overnight eviction proceeding that would cause them to be removed from their homes or displaced."
Rawson is also pleased Lindberg left questions about Wisan's trust management on the table, giving attorneys time to "regroup" and decide how best to raise the issue in court.
Michael Stanger, an attorney who represents Wisan said they welcome the participation of the FLDS members.
"I think it's been clear from everything (Wisan) has said in court that we're all very frustrated that a large class of trust beneficiaries have not been providing in put," Stanger said. Stanger also said no eviction proceedings were imminent.
The UEP Trust was established as the charitable arm of the FLDS church in 1942, with members turning over the deeds to their properties in Utah, Arizona and a church enclave in British Columbia. Church leaders served as trustees and doled out undeveloped parcels or homes to FLDS families.
Lindberg made Wisan the trust overseer in May 2005, after the Utah attorney general's office said church leaders had fleeced trust assets for personal use, including keeping church president Warren Jeffs on the run from criminal charges.
The trust has since been reorganized, with an eye toward allowing trust beneficiaries to obtain deeds to their homes.
The monthly assessment of $100 was imposed in January to cover the cost of subdividing and platting the two towns, which include about 700 homes and thousands of residents.
Wisan had previously threatened evictions when property taxes went unpaid in 2006, but residents paid.
The FLDS have mostly tried to ignore Wisan. They paid taxes, but closely followed an early "answer them nothing" directive from Jeffs who said the takeover was part of a government campaign to persecute the sect for its religious practices, which include polygamy.
But much has changed since 2005. Last year Jeffs was convicted of two felony counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 marriage of a teenage follower to her cousin and in April, Texas authorities raided a church ranch, removing more than 450 children from the custody of their parents after allegations of abuse.
Rawson can't say specifically what led to the decision to fight the latest eviction notices, but believes the "traumatic events that happened in Texas has probably caused the community to realize that they are extremely vulnerable without outside assistance."
Stanger said lack of participation over the past three years doesn't diminish the right of any trust beneficiary to voice their concerns about how the trust is being managed.
"They are probably late with respect to some of the particular arguments they are making, but in general the trust still exists and they are among that beneficiary class."
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
