He has no money, no lawyer.
But Ronald Bierer toted a stack of documents and three of his 18 children 700 miles in an effort to pressure officials in one of Utah's most notorious polygamous communities to give him back his business.Officials of the Apostolic United Brethren, which has about 5,000 members and advocates plural marriage, are unfairly holding the title to the Whole Earth Hardware in Hamilton, Mont., according to Bierer.
Bluffdale, in the southwestern corner of Salt Lake County, is the headquarters of the Apostolic United Brethren, and its current leader, Owen Allred. Owen is a brother of Rulon Allred, who earlier led the polygamous sect. Rulon was shot to death in May 1977 in his Murray dental office by members of a notorious rival group led by Ervil LeBaron. LeBaron died in prison while serving time for the murder.
"I just want my business back so I can do right by my family," Bierer said in an interview with the Deseret News before a press conference at the Utah State Capitol Friday.
Bierer's story takes place in Pinesdale, Mont., a polygamous community of 1,000 people. The AUB owns about 1,000 acres in the small community and controls the government and community operations much as a similar polygamous group does in Hildale, Utah.
During a tax fight with the Internal Revenue Service, Bierer says he signed his business over to Unified Industries, an apparent holding company for the AUB. He understood the business would be returned to his name when the tax problem was solved.
Bierer continued working for the AUB, and even moved to southern Utah to help develop the polygamous community of Motoqua.
Health problems and trouble with the church's officials ensued, and Bierer has been unable to get back his claim to the hardware store, located in Hamilton, 10 miles from Pinesdale.
Efforts to work out the problem long-distance have failed, so Bierer came to Utah "to bring attention to the injustices that are going on."
Bierer, who no longer practices polygamy, lives with his third wife and their seven children in Hamilton. He took his twin boys, age 11, and his daughter, Rachel, 5, to the south side of the Utah State Capitol Friday in a one-man demonstration against the group and its leaders.
"If I can't help myself, I at least hope to help someone else."
One child had a sign, "Polygamous Cult Robbed my Father; put 8 children on Welfare."
Another held one that said: "Why does Utah condone Allred Polygamous cult stealing members Homes Businesses Wives Daughters. Ask Owen Allred."
Owen Allred was out of town on church business and unavailable to comment on the case, said Monica Kelley, an attorney with Kelley & Kelley of Salt Lake City, the firm that represents the Apostolic United Brethren.
Allred is, however, anxious to answer any questions and will do so when he returns to town next week, she said.
"I don't think there has been another group that has been so open and forthright," she said. "They want to speak out and to educate as much as possible and to say that all polygamist groups are not the same," she said.
And the group is looking for a high-profile audience.
On Friday, Owen Allred, speaking as the presiding elder of Apostolic United Brethren, sent a letter to Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Utah Attorney General Jan Graham asking both for a meeting.
"We believe it is important that you receive some basic information regarding our religious beliefs, lifestyle and philosophy of openness and freedom for our members directly from us, instead of receiving it through the filter of prejudice and suspicion which seems to have permeated recent news reports," the letter said.
AUB members devote themselves to the religious tenets of their religion, the letter states. And "AUB members will never waver in our open exercise of religious freedom, and we will continue to actively participate in social and religious development in this State.
"Therefore, we invite you to engage in dialogue with religious groups such as ours so that we may work together on ways to best prevent abuses alleged to have occurred in the Kingston clan."
Two men in northern Utah's Kingston polygamous group have been arrested on abuse charges in connection with the beating and illegal marriage of a teenage girl.
But Bierer finds the abuses he says he suffered no less egregious.
He says he has been from rags to riches to rags again.
Bierer joined Allred's Apostolic United Brethren in 1978. He was a wealthy land and business owner, with ranches and stores in Montana and Oregon.
He had inquired of friends about polygamy, he said. He "sought it out," he says, and got a visit from Owen Allred. "He came to my house telling me what a wonderful brotherhood they had. It sounded so wonderful."
Now Bierer is on disability. He lives in a two-bedroom apartment attached to the store he wants back with his wife and a household full of children. He has been allowed to clean the store, but he does not have the title.
Brian Davis, who has never been a polygamist but lived in Pinesdale, is also engrossed in a complicated lawsuit with the AUB over property Davis had in the polygamous community 45 miles south of Missoula.
Davis' lawsuit, filed in Montana courts, asks for $250,000 and an unspecified amount of damages.
Davis, 47, left Pinesdale in 1995 and has only been back once, with an attorney. "They're doing unjust enrichment to themselves," Davis said.
Stories told by Davis and Bierer focus on a dominating church controlled by Allred and his followers.
The group may collect as much as $200,000 a month from tithing, Davis said.
Women have few rights in the Pinesdale community, they say, and property is put in men's names so the wives have little say about the property when the men leave or die, according to Davis and Bierer.
Members, believing in the religious and spiritual teachings espoused by the leaders, often sign much of their property over to the Unified Industries, which is AUB's business arm.
And because the people in Pinesdale, as well as other Allred followers across the Western states, believe Allred is a spiritual leader, no one wants to make waves when they see injustices being done.
"If you testify against Owen, you're going to hell," Davis said. "You don't pass Go, you don't collect $200. You go straight to hell."
Much of the property is owned by the AUB church, and business gets done in the community with unusual arrangements between the AUB and members.
There are few choices for people, especially women, Davis said. "The woman marries who they tell her to marry or she leaves with nothing," he said. "She's got seven, eight children, no education; what's she going to do?"
Davis, who had a wife and 10 children when things came to a head with the AUB, moved 10 miles from Pinesdale and has a chainsaw carving business.
Davis and Bierer said they understand it's difficult for an outsider to understand why someone would stay in a situation like this.
But anyone who speaks out against any actions by AUB or its leaders . . . "you lose all your friends, your relatives. Your own family will leave you if you speak out against the leaders. You're so brainwashed and everyone there is," Davis said.
"You have a family, you have 10 kids and you have three or four wives. Where are you going to go?"