SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Union-Tribune
By Jennifer Dobner
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:34 p.m. June 22, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY – All trustees including the reclusive leader of a Mormon splinter group which still practices polygamy were permanently removed Wednesday as managers of the church's multimillion dollar trust fund.
Warren Jeffs and five other high-ranking members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were barred by a judge from spending or selling any of the church's assets.
The assets include most of the property in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where nearly 10,000 church members live. The trust, called the United Effort Plan, also includes businesses and most homes in the two towns.
The state of Utah, fearing Jeffs was liquidating the trust as he built a new church enclave in West Texas, got a temporary restraining order last month freezing the trust's assets. An independent auditor in Salt Lake City will remain in charge of the trust until new trustees who will appointed by the court July 21 replace him.
It's not the only legal problem for Jeffs, who hasn't been seen publicly in a year, although an attorney for some church members claimed Jeffs was seen last weekend in Canada.
Jeffs was indicted in Mohave County, Ariz., earlier this month on sex-related charges for allegedly arranging a marriage between a teenage girl and a 28-year-old man who already was married.