Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Stolen Innocence: Update

Elissa Wall is now offering to settle a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the FLDS.

Elissa sued over her forced marriage at age 14 to her 19-year-old cousin. She named the FLDS Church, its leader, Warren Jeffs, and the United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust as defendants. The proposed settlement was filed in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court last week in the ongoing litigation over the UEP Trust, which controls property in the FLDS communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

In the settlement, Wall asks for about $308,000 in compensation and a monetary judgment to be awarded in mediation or a damages-only trial. She also wants some undeveloped trust land as well as the properties that her family lives on.

"(Elissa Wall) will personally receive no further compensation, but will execute on her remaining judgment to facilitate the UEP Trust's goal of conveying the homes built on UEP Trust land to Trust Participants," her attorney, Roger Hoole, wrote in a copy of the settlement obtained by KSL NewsRadio.

Wall is apparently seeking to exert some influence on subdividing the land currently held by the trust, which was originally based upon the early-Mormon concept of a "United Order," where everything was placed in a common pot and doled out according to just wants and needs.

The interesting thing about this is that the FLDS no longer have control over the UEP, as the UEP Trust was taken over by the courts in 2005 amid allegations that FLDS leadership mismanaged it. Right now the Trust is trying to sell land that the FLDS had set aside for a temple to pay some of the outstanding lawsuits. The reformed UEP Trust does away with the communal "united order" concept and paves the way for private property ownership. Elissa Wall seems to be attempting to assist with this dismantling of the FLDS United Order.

2 comments:

  1. This situation sounds very convoluted. An attempt to be compensated out of a trust fund that has been seized to benefit another team of lawyers and, may be, the government has got to be a tall order.

    I wish her luck.

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  2. It does to me too, Hellmut. But in my view the FLDS have been shafted on this UEP business, and I wouldn't be surprised by any developments--even a settlement with Elissa Wall. I'm keeping my eye on this.

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