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Sabotage of the FLDS Granaries

2010-07-25 09:41:52

By Donald Richter

 

The recent forcible break-in at the granary managed by the Bishop’s Storehouse in Hildale, Utah, and the dumping of contaminated wheat into the community food supply clearly show the vindictive hatred and violent nature of many of those being recruited by UEP Special Fiduciary Bruce Wisan and his agents to wage “sociological and psychological warfare” against the FLDS people. (See “Birds of a Feather”)
 
In August of 2009, Mr. Wisan issued to Shane Stubbs and David Stubbs a lease on four of the granaries at the top of Memorial Street, claiming that they had been abandoned. In reality, the granaries have been used continuously for thirty-four years by the Bishop’s Storehouse in living the United Order and providing for the just wants and needs of members of the FLDS Church. Currently the Church has 60,000 pounds of food-grade wheat stored in these facilities. Some bins are always empty because the grain is regularly rotated every two months to keep it from becoming infested with weevils.[1]
 
On July 10, 2010, Shane Stubbs, Dan Stubbs, and four others cut the padlock on the gate to the granaries and dumped into the hoppers a quantity of feed-grade wheat, which was full of dirt and bugs. However, when they attempted to run the augers and mix the contaminated grain with the wheat in the bins, they were prevented by those who were managing the granary under the Bishop’s direction. Had they succeeded in running the augers, the stored wheat would have been useless for human consumption and it would have been necessary to completely clean and sanitize the granary before it could be used again for food-grade storage.[2]
 
The city prosecutor had advised the Marshall’s Office not to interfere in such disputes but to allow the courts to determine who had the right to use the facilities. Although requested by the Church to intervene, the local police followed the advice of the city prosecutor and refrained from doing so. 
 
Shane and company returned on July 13, when, finding the augers still not operational, Shane used a sledge hammer and bar to break open the door of one of the granaries. He then spray painted his name on the side of the silo and manually poured in feed-grade wheat, making the existing contents unfit for human consumption.[3]
  
 
On July 14, pending an evidentiary hearing on July 27, Judge James L. Shumate of the Fifth District Court in Washington County, Utah, issued a temporary restraining order against Shane and David Stubbs and their agents, forbidding them from coming onto the property of the Bishop’s Storehouse, from placing anything in the grain silos, or from assaulting or harassing the Bishop or any of his agents who might be on the property of the Bishop’s Storehouse or of the Bishop’s residence. The police were ordered to immediately enforce the terms of this order.[4]  
 
Judge Shumate’s order includes the following statement: “Defendants, by virtue of the possession and attempted exercise of this lease…infringe [on] the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America in a manner inconsistent with the public interest.”[5]
 
On Sunday, July 18, Jethro Barlow and Richard Holm were observed walking around the granary and banging on the sides of the different silos, apparently trying to ascertain which of them contained grain and which were empty. When Officer Helaman Barlow arrived to investigate a possible trespassing in violation of the TRO issued on July 14, the men denied that they were working with or in concert with Shane Stubbs or David Stubbs and claimed that they were merely out on a hike, even though it was Sunday afternoon and the weather was very hot.[6] Jethro Barlow had been present with Shane Stubbs on July 10, when he claimed that he had all of the necessary paperwork giving Shane authorization to use the granaries.[7]
 
Officer Barlow reported the incident to the Washington County Attorney’s Office, where on-call attorney Rick Erickson agreed that Jethro Barlow and Richard Holm could have been violating the restraining order.[8] Police reports were submitted, and the County Attorney’s Office is considering whether to file criminal charges against the men.
 
Critics of the FLDS have claimed that since improvements on the land become part of the UEP Trust, Mr. Wisan has the right to do whatever he wants with Trust property, whether his actions are equitable or not. However, many of the items claimed by Mr. Wisan are not and never have been Trust property. In one of his early reports to Judge Lindberg’s court, Mr. Wisan stated that the UEP “is comprised solely of real estate, and…has no personal property, no income, and no source of income other than donations.” The granaries are the private property of the Bishop’s Storehouse and have been recognized as such by the Washington County Assessor’s Office ever since they were erected. 
 
The International Association of Assessing Officers makes the following distinction between real and personal property:
 
Real estate is the physical parcel of land, improvements to the land (such as clearing and grading), improvements attached to the land (such as paving and buildings), and appurtenances (such as easements that cross the parcel or give access to the parcel). Personal property is defined by exception: property that is not real is personal. The salient characteristic of personal property is its movability without damage either to itself or to the real estate to which it is attached.[9]
 
The granaries themselves certainly fit this description. Two of them were moved from the property of former Church President Rulon Jeffs in Salt Lake City. In addition, case law going back almost 100 years supports the concept of granaries being personal property and not part of the real estate.
 
In Montana in 1913, a party bought a parcel of land on which a previous lessee had erected a frame granary with a sloping shingle roof. The new owner took license from the fact that his contact did not exclude the granary from the sale of the land. He refused to allow the actual owner to remove the granary and instead converted it into a dwelling. The District Court in Flathead County ruled that the granary was the personal property of the former lessee, and this decision was sustained by the Montana Supreme Court.[10]
 
In a North Dakota case in 1923, a frame granary was declared to be personal property in spite of the terms of the contract of sale to the effect that all structures built on the land were part of the real estate.[11]
 
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has been backing Bruce Wisan to the hilt in his vicious administration of the UEP Trust. It is obvious that in assigning leases such as he did on the Storehouse granaries, Mr. Wisan, through his agent Jethro Barlow, has not been administering the Trust for the purpose of providing for the “just wants and needs” of the people but rather in a ruthless manner aimed at enriching himself and destroying the FLDS Church. (See “Bruce Wisan, Fraudulent Fiduciary”)
 
 

 

                [1] Lyle Jeffs v. Shane Stubbs and David Stubbs, “Affidavit of Chad Johnson,” No. 100502442, Fifth Judicial District Court, Washington County, Utah, 11 July 2010.
                [2] Affidavit of Chad Johnson, and Lyle Jeffs v. Shane Stubbs and David Stubbs, “Verified Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief,” No. 100502442, Fifth Judicial District Court, Washington County, Utah, 14 July 2010.
                [3] Lyle Jeffs v. Shane Stubbs and David Stubbs, “Affidavit of Rodney R. Parker,” No. 100502442, Fifth Judicial Court, Washington County, Utah, 14 July 2010.
                [4] Lyle Jeffs v. Shane Stubbs and David Stubbs, “Temporary Restraining Order,” No. 100502442, Fifth Judicial District Court, Washington County, Utah, 14 July 2010.
                [5] Ibid.
                [6] Officer Helaman Barlow, “Narrative,” Case No. 10-0003085, Colorado City MO/Hildale PD, 20 July 2010, 3.
                [7] Officer Samuel Johnson, “Narrative,” Case No. 10-0002977, Colorado City MO/Hildale PD, 14 July 2010, 4.
                [8] Officer Helaman Barlow, “Narrative,” 4.
                [9] Standard on Valuation of Personal Property (Kansas City, Missouri: International Association of Assessing Officers, 2005), 5.
                [10] Padden v. Murgittroyd et al (No. 3776), Supreme Court of Montana, 12 June 1917, in The Pacific Reporter, Vol. 165 (St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1917), 913-914.
                [11] Thompson Yards v. Bunde, 50 N.D. 408, 196 N.W. 312 (1923).


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