Firms cooperate in FLDS investigation
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
Companies with links to the Fundamentalist LDS Church appear to be cooperating with an Arizona grand jury investigation into the polygamous church and an embattled school district in Colorado City.

That's what the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office reported to a judge Tuesday morning in 3rd District Court. The DA's office has been helping the Arizona attorney general serve subpoenas on FLDS-linked businesses Village Transportation, Village Truss and the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the FLDS Church.

"I know we were able to serve them," DA's spokesman Bob Stott said Tuesday.

Steeds, Inc., which was in Midvale is no longer in business. No one from the companies showed up at the Matheson Courthouse Tuesday.

The target of the subpoenas is Jeffrey P. Jessop, the former financial director of the Colorado City Unified School District. He resigned under pressure in 2005, after the state of Arizona took over the district amid allegations of financial mismanagement. The subpoenas ask for records related to Jessop.

"I told them that my dealings with the fundamentalist church are protected by legal privilege," former FLDS lawyer Rod Parker told the Deseret Morning News on Tuesday. "Nevertheless, I don't have any records that are responsive to the request, privileged or not."

Parker said he had never met Jessop and did not know who he was. The Jody Wilkinson Acura car dealership was also served with a subpoena request. The Salt Lake District Attorney's Office has said they were complying.

In St. George, 17 men from the polygamous border towns of Hildale and Colorado City have been ordered to appear in 5th District Court next week to ensure they testify before the Arizona grand jury. Arizona authorities have refused to talk about the grand jury investigation.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
desertenews.com
Originally published Wednesday, May 10, 2006
 
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