A monument that has been the scorn of Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs has been vandalized — again.
People who live in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., said tar was recently poured over a redrock monument to a 1953 raid on Short Creek. The monument this summer had also been paintballed and buried.
The monument and a children's train running through Hildale's Cottonwood Park were vandalized recently after a harvest festival that drew more than 500 people.
Some FLDS members "were unhappy that the apostates were having a good time over at the park," said Bruce Wisan, the court-appointed special fiduciary of the United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust. The UEP controls homes, businesses and property in the FLDS enclaves. It was recently reformed by a judge in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court.
In an interview Thursday, Wisan said he has asked the Hildale Police Department to investigate the vandalism.
"We've got the police going over there," he said. "I'm not very confident that the police will do much."
Wisan has been critical of the police in the past. His lawyers have brought many officers to give depositions about missing UEP property and the officers' loyalties to Jeffs.
The monument was erected in July by ex-FLDS members, in tribute to polygamists who were jailed in the 1953 Arizona police raid on the border towns. After the monument's arrival, FLDS faithful abandoned Cottonwood Park.
The monument replaced one that Jeffs had ordered destroyed back in 2003. In a secretly recorded sermon obtained by the Deseret Morning News, Jeffs claimed God told him the monument was idolatry.
"Verily I say unto you my servant Warren," Jeffs said, recounting his revelation. "My people have sinned a very grievous sin in that they have raised up monuments to man and have not glorified me."
Jeffs is currently jailed in Washington County and faces criminal charges of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He is accused of arranging a child-bride marriage. Jeffs is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 21.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com