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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A judge today granted a request from the Utah Attorney General's Office to prevent the reclusive polygamist leader Warren Jeffs from selling off assets of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Several pieces of trust property were sold last year. And the Utah Attorney General's office says some church members could be at risk of losing their homes because Jeffs is not contesting two lawsuits, and the trust assets could be taken by the courts.
Next week, Shurtleff will ask the courts to permanently remove Jeffs and others as trustees and install others to run the trust. Jeffs hasn't been seen in a year, and is believed to be living at a church compound in West Texas.
In Third District Court today, former F-L-D-S member Winston Blackmore said he was no longer a United Effort Plan trustee and that Shurtleff is doing the right thing.
Blackmore leads a group of church members who live in a community called Bountiful, just outside the border town of Creston, British Columbia. He tells The Associated Press that the original spirit of the U-E-P Trust has been lost and that church members and their families need to be protected.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
