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	Polygamist Leader's Papers Topic of Nevada Federal Court Hearing KVOA January 6, 2007 http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5900453 SALT LAKE CITY -- Attorneys for polygamist church leader Warren Jeffs will square off with a cadre of other lawyers in a Las Vegas federal court Monday over a cache of cash and evidence seized in Jeffs' August arrest. Among those wanting a look at evidence are attorneys for the United Effort Plan Trust, which holds $110 million in church property, and Shem Fischer, a former follower who sued Jeffs after being fired from his job. Both parties want U.S. District Judge Robert Jones to grant them standing in Jeffs' case and access to papers, letters and electronic documents being held by the FBI _ a move Jeffs' attorneys are trying to block. Jeffs, 51, is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was picked up in a traffic stop near Las Vegas on federal warrants after evading prosecution in Utah and Arizona for nearly two years. He's now in a southern-Utah county jail pending an April trial on two felony counts of rape as an accomplice related to a 2001 arranged marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her cousin. Police seized $54,000 in cash, letters and other papers, laptop computers, cell phones, and other items from the Cadillac Escalade Jeffs was riding in at the time of the arrest. The contents of the letters and information on computers isn't publicly known. But in court documents, Jeffs' Las Vegas attorney Richard Wright contends the information is "sacred and confidential" because it includes matters of church doctrine and private communications between Jeffs and his followers. Wright did not return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. In court papers he asks the court to return the seized evidence to Jeffs. Shem Fischer's attorneys think Wright is wrong. "The documents may shed more information as to where (church) assets have been hidden, in what form they are held and where they are held," Las Vegas attorney Ariel Stern said. Fischer is primarily interested in Jeffs' money. In 2002, Fischer sued Jeffs, the church and a church-controlled cabinet company, in federal court for religious discrimination. Fischer said he was fired by Forestwood Co., after he left the FLDS faith. The company is based in Hildale, Utah one of two Utah-Arizona border communities where most of the 10,000 members of the insular church have historically lived. Fischer's firing came about the same time Jeffs is said to have issued an edict that members cut ties with outsiders. Last May Fischer won a default judgment in the case that awards him more than $338,000. Nearly half of that _ $132,000 _ has been paid from funds seized when Jeffs' brother, Seth Jeffs, was arrested in Colorado in 2005. Now he wants to collect the balance. Like Fischer, Bruce Wisan wants to know if Jeffs' papers and electronic records will lead to church assets that rightfully belong to the trust and should benefit all current and former church members. The trust is comprised of nearly all the property in Hildale, Colorado City, Ariz., and British Columbia, where church members live in assigned housing. A Utah judge made Wisan overseer of the trust in 2005 after finding Jeffs and other church leaders were fleecing it for personal gain. U.S. Attorneys in Utah also have a stake the seized goods, as a federal criminal prosecution of Jeffs is still possible, but no one from that office is expected to appear in court Monday, spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch said. Utah's Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, whose office has been looking into possible Rico crimes connected to Jeffs' church, has also expressed interest. Shurtleff's office has filed no motions related to the evidence, however. Jeffs is also facing felony charges in Mohave County, Ariz., for other arranged marriages. He's expected to be extradited there following the Utah case.
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