UTAH
The Salt Lake Tribune
By ERIN ALBERTY | The Salt Lake Tribune
The Utah Supreme Court on Wednesday said a polygamous sect’s charitable trust can be held liable for Warren Jeffs’ role in forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry.
The ruling sends the case back to a lower court where the former child bride, Elissa Wall, may seek up to $40 million.
“As trustee … Jeffs was called upon to administer the trust in accordance with the doctrines and principles of the FLDS church. Those doctrines and principles, according to [Wall’s] allegations and evidence in the record, included the arrangement of plural, underage marriages,” Wednesday’s ruling states. “Thus, as abhorrent and troubling as this may appear to be, there is a basis in the record for the conclusion that Jeffs’ acts were aimed in part at advancing the interests of the trust as he perceived them.”
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