CUSTER, S.D. (AP) — A compound in South Dakota’s Black Hills that was owned by a secretive polygamous sect has been sold at auction to three former members who broke with the sect years ago.
WATCH: Judge orders 140-acre FLDS ranch to be sold
Blue Mountain Ranch LLC, representing Patrick Pipkin, Seth Cooke and Andrew Chatwin, paid $750,000 for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ sprawling compound at a Custer County sheriff’s auction last week.
The Rapid City Journal reports that Pipkin left the FLDS church about 15 years ago and no longer believes in its teachings.
Pipkin, Cooke and Chatwin successfully sued the FLDS after alleging they were illegally jailed in Arizona by local authorities who were handpicked by the sect, which they say conspired to illegally arrest and prosecute non-members.
