FLDS say faith requires giving food stamps purchases to church


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SALT LAKE CITY — Accused Fundamentalist LDS Church members say donating food obtained through a government program to their church is no different than bringing goods bought with food stamps to a PTA bake sale or potluck dinner.

Members of the polygamous sect made that argument in a new federal court filing Friday asking for the criminal charges against them to be dismissed. They continue to argue the Religious Freedom Restoration Act allows them to share Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP benefits as part of their communal living.

Seth Jeffs contends his religious rights would be burdened if he is prohibited from donating food to the FLDS bishop's storehouse. In addition, Jeffs worked at the storehouse accepting food and donations from church members.

"It would be akin to asking a PTA president to verify and reject any baked goods for the school bake sale that came from SNAP families or worse, holding the PTA president criminally responsible if he or she accepted such a donation," Jeffs' lawyer Jay Winward wrote.

"Similarly, a church pastor cannot be forced to reject SNAP food at the Christmas potluck or be charged with a crime."

Government prosecutors argue the benefits must be used to buy food for an authorized recipient's household and that they can't be donated to another organization.

Furthermore, they say in a court filing Friday that SNAP is designed to provide low-income families with money to purchase food in order to alleviate hunger and malnutrition. If recipients are allowed to buy food and donate it wholesale, there is no guarantee it would be used for that purpose, prosecutors say.

FLDS members appear to be arguing that SNAP is designed only to "increase the purchasing power" of recipients and that the government’s interest is satisfied when they buy food, regardless of what they do with it afterward, according to assistant U.S. attorney Amanda Berndt.

"That is, in a word, ludicrous," she wrote.

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At a hearing earlier this month, Jeffs testified that FLDS members believe everything on Earth belongs to God, which is why they must give everything they own to a community storehouse. The group's leaders decide how best to redistribute the goods.

Prosecutors say the defendants knowingly broke the law by not only donating food to the storehouse but diverting funds to front companies and to pay for a tractor, truck and other items. They say sect leaders lived lavishly while low-ranking followers suffered.

Jeffs and the other 10 defendants have pleaded not guilty to food stamp fraud and money laundering.

Jeffs and John Wayman are being held in jail pending trial. Lyle Jeffs, the highest-ranking leader indicted in the case, has been on the run for nearly four months since he slipped out of a GPS ankle monitor and escaped home confinement in the Salt Lake City area. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for his capture.

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Dennis Romboy

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