Criminal charges have been filed against the court-appointed special fiduciary of the Fundamentalist LDS Church's real-estate holdings arm, accusing him of criminal solicitation.
Six misdemeanor charges were filed against Bruce Wisan, accusing him of soliciting one of his employees to trespass on private property in Colorado City, Ariz. Four misdemeanor counts also were filed in Moccasin, Ariz., Consolidate Court against Jethro Barlow, accusing him of the same. The charging documents were included in a recent civil filing by lawyers representing FLDS members.
The charges stem from the conviction of Isaac Wyler, an ex-FLDS member who has been employed by the fiduciary to serve property-tax notices in the polygamist border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City. Wyler was convicted last month of misdemeanor trespassing and placed on two years' probation for going into some homes occupied by FLDS members while attempting to serve tax notices.
News of the criminal charges surprised Wisan's attorney, Jeffrey L. Shields, who said they haven't been served with any papers.
"To my knowledge, he hasn't been issued anything," Shields said Tuesday. "I just saw what was in the pleading. I've got to see what the facts are."
In a report to the Colorado City Council, town manager David Darger said, "The charges are not merely related to isolated instances, but are a culmination of a situation spinning out of control."
The ongoing feud threatens to derail settlement talks scheduled next week over the land in the FLDS towns. Tensions have been simmering ever since all sides agreed to a "stand down" on lawsuits over the UEP Trust. Recently, the Arizona Attorney General's Office filed to have portions of the court-ordered stay lifted so that Wisan could sell assets to pay debts and ongoing expenses of the trust.
"This request is required because a substantial portion of the monthly assessments of those residing on United Effort Plan Trust property are not being paid, and because the stay of litigation and the lack of funding for trust administration prevent the special fiduciary from properly responding to 'self-help' activities involving trust properties occurring in the Colorado City and Hildale communities," assistant Arizona Attorney General William Richards wrote, referring to a series of $100-a-month fees still unpaid and the recent arrests of two FLDS men accused of plowing over a field without permission. Charges were ultimately dropped, attorneys for the FLDS members claim.
In response, lawyers for the FLDS members blamed Wisan's management.
"The special fiduciary has not in any sense 'stood down,' and has not even complied with the reformed trust, refusing even after the stand-down and the FLDS community's engagement in this matter to solicit any input from the FLDS leadership on such sensitive issues as the use of Berry Knoll and the sacred ground of the FLDS cemetery," attorney Stephen C. Clark wrote in a motion filed late last week in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City.
Wisan recently granted an ex-FLDS member permission to bury his baby in a cemetery that the FLDS Church claims is reserved for its faithful members. The proposed land sale of Berry Knoll, which the church claims was prophesied to be the site of a holy temple, led to lawsuits.
In 2005, a judge took control of the UEP Trust over allegations that FLDS leader Warren Jeffs and others mismanaged it, including defaulting on a series of civil lawsuits. The judge signed a reform plan doing away with the communal-property nature of the trust in favor of private-property ownership.
After years of relative silence, the FLDS fought back with a series of lawsuits, claiming the reformed trust violates their religious freedom rights by not allowing them to consecrate their property to the church. The Utah Attorney General's Office, which brought the trust action to the court, remained hopeful a settlement could be reached.
"Our intention is to bring two sides who are very far apart — together," said attorney general's spokesman Paul Murphy. "If we don't reach a resolution, it will just drag on, and everybody will lose."
E-MAIL: bwinslow@desnews.com