UPDATE: At a hearing Tuesday afternoon, court records indicate 3rd District Court Judge Keith Kelly ordered a $5 million security bond be posted by the UEP Trust, which has the option to appeal.
ORIGINAL STORY:
SALT LAKE CITY — A judge will decide how much, if any, the Fundamentalist LDS Church’s real-estate holdings arm will have to shell out in a security bond in the face of a former child bride’s $40 million lawsuit.
Elissa Wall’s lawyers are asking a judge to require the court-controlled United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust to put up $15 million in a security bond to ensure there is money should she prevail in her lawsuit against Warren Jeffs and the FLDS Church.
Read the filing by Elissa Wall’s lawyers here:
Wall is suing Jeffs and the FLDS Church over her marriage at age 14 to her cousin in a ceremony presided over by Jeffs. The UEP, which has an estimated $110 million in assets, was taken over by the courts in 2005 amid allegations that Jeffs and others mismanaged it.
The fiduciary for the court-controlled UEP is asking for a few hundred thousand in the form of a bond. A hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Read the filing by the UEP Trust here:
In July, the Utah Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by the UEP over whether it was liable for what happened to Wall. The bond hearing would determine if there is any money left over, if Wall were to prevail and go to trial.
Wall’s lawsuit against Jeffs has sparked other criminal investigations. The Utah Attorney General’s Office told FOX 13 it is investigating an ex-FLDS member who admitted in a deposition to marrying underage girls.
Jeffs is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sex assault related to underage marriages.
