Federal Judge Dee Benson is threatening to have Federal Marshals sent to arrest Utah State Judge Denise Lindburg.
It seems Judge Benson, a former partner in the law firm of Show Christiansen and Martineau, which currently represents the FLDS doesn't feel he should recuse himself from the case. He actually thinks he can be their champion and no one will even notice. Funny that.
Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 1
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
THE FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCH
OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY
SAINTS, an Association of Individuals
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v.
BRUCE R. WISAN, Special Fiduciary of
the United Effort Plan Trust; MARK
SHURTLEFF, Attorney General for the
State of Utah; TERRY GODDARD,
Attorney General for the State of Arizona;
and DENISE POSSE LINDBERG, Judge
of the Third Judicial District Court of Salt
Lake County, State of Utah
Defendants - Appellees.
No. 11-4066
NOTICE OF INFORMATION RELEVANT TO
EMERGENCY
MOTION TO STAY AND
REQUEST FOR IMMEDIATE DECISION
Defendant Judge Denise Posse Lindberg, by and through counsel Brent M.
Johnson of the Utah State Administrative Office of the Courts, submits the following
notice in support of the Emergency Motion to Stay filed on April 13, 2011.
This notice is to advise the Court that the federal district court this morning
Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 2
informed counsel that an Order to Show Cause has been scheduled for tomorrow, April
15, 2011, against Judge Lindberg concerning her Order dated April 11, 2011.
Judge Lindberg’s order was included as an attachment to her motion before this Court to stay the federal court’s preliminary injunction order. Judge Lindberg is leaving for Arizona this afternoon to attend a memorial service for her recently deceased uncle, scheduled for tomorrow, and counsel is in St. George, Utah, several hours from Salt Lake City. When the undersigned informed Judge Dee Benson of this information, he suggested that it may be necessary to have the federal marshals bring Judge Lindberg before his court this afternoon to answer as to her order. This has created a crisis necessitating an immediate decision from this Court.
Judge Lindberg will do as directed by this Court. Judge Lindberg’s concern
remains that if her fiduciary is required to cede control of the property before Judge Benson’s order can be reviewed, Trust assets will be irretrievably lost. Moreover, because there are competing claimants to the authority to act on behalf of the Corporation of the President of the FLDS Church (the entity to whom Judge Benson’s order directs Trust assets be turned over), it is not clear to whom the fiduciary should turn over Trust assets, if that should be this Court’s direction. As a result, Judge Lindberg renews her urgent request that this Court issue an immediate stay of the federal district court’s order pending review of the various appeals that have been filed. Should the 10th Circuit deny the motion for stay, Judge Lindberg will follow any directive the 10 th Circuit may issue. In that event, Judge Lindberg requests specific direction from this Court regarding how
Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 3
Trust assets should be preserved in the interim.
Only through this Court’s immediate action can this extremely difficult and pressing situation between the courts of two sovereigns be de-escalated, and time given for appropriate review of the issues on appeal.
Dated this 14 th day of April, 2011.
s/ Brent M. Johnson
BRENT M. JOHNSON
Attorney for Judge Denise Posse Lindberg
Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 4
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
This is to certify that a true and correct copy of the foregoing document was filed
electronically with the Court via the CM/ECF system on this 14th day of April, 2011 to:
Roger H. Hoole
Gregory N. Hoole
Hoole & King, L.C.
4276 South Highland Drive
Salt Lake City, Utah 84124
Joni J. Jones
David N. Wolf
Assistant Utah Attorney General
160 East 300 South, 6 th Floor
P.O. Box 140856
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-0856
Mark Philip Bookholder
Arizona Attorney General’s Office
1275 West Washington
Phoenix, Arizona 85007-2997
Jeffrey L. Shields
Zachary T. Shields
Michael D. Stanger
Callister Nebeker * McCullough
10 East South Temple
Gateway Tower East, Suite 900
Salt Lake City, Utah 84113
Andrew V. Collins
Mitchell & Barlow
6465 South 3000 E, Suite 203
Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121
Kenneth A. Okazaki
Stephen Clark
Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & McDonough
170 South Main Street, Suite 1500
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
Randy S. Hunter
Assistant Utah Attorney General
160 East 300 South, 5 th Floor
P.O. Box 140857
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-0875
James C. Bradshaw
Brown, Bradshaw & M offat, L.L.P.
10 West Broadway, Suite 210
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
Frederick Mark Gedicks
Richard A. Van Wagoner
Rodney R. Parker
Snow, Christensen & Martineau
10 Exchange Place, 11 th Floor
P.O. Box 45000
Salt Lake City, Utah 84145-5000
Michael H. Hinson
Office of the Attorney General
Liability Management Section
177 North Church Ave. Suite 1105
Tucson, Arizona 85701
Appellate Case: 11-4066 Document: 01018622162 Date Filed: 04/14/2011 Page: 5
Ryan M . Harris
Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & McDonough
170 South Main Street, Suite 1500
Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1644
/s/Jeni Wood
Jeni Wood
Legal Secretary to Brent M. Johnson
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For decades the FLDS have simply handed over cash to judges when things get ugly for them. Flora Jessop has a story about that. This looks very suspicious. The question of who should control the assets is anything but solved. Willie Jessop would love to get his hands on that control.
ReplyDeleteUtah should loose statehood over the corruption it practices in covering up for and protecting their tens of thousands of polygamists.
ReplyDeletelose, too, lol.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, the article in the SLTrib has people in the comment thread going to extraordinary lengths to defend the FLDS. There's not much going on though, just the usual people who don't know how to have a discussion with other people.
ReplyDeleteAsk Mitt Romney!
ReplyDeleteBut the situation gets even more convoluted because Rodney R. Parker -- who continues to represent members of the FLDS legally -- is with the law firm of Snow, Christensen and Martineau, which also represents "the State of Utah, its officers, agencies and employees". Parker previously served (1988-89) as Associate Deputy Attorney General "on the immediate staff" of the Deputy Attorney General of the United States in Washington D.C.
Harold G. Christensen, Of Counsel, at Snow Christensen & Martineau, served as Deputy Attorney General of the US in both Ronald Reagan and Bush I's administrations, as well as head of Litigation of the Utah Attorney General's Office. And Reed L. Martineau of Snow Christensen & Martineau, was President of the Utah Bar Association from 1987-88.
"As for George Romney, [late] governor of Michigan [Mitt Romney's father]. . .The Romneys still live in the predominately Mormon community of Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua [historically a polygamy colony], the Stake in that part of Mexico, 5,000 people live there. It is located some 18 miles west of Casas Grandes in a beautiful valley filled with apple orchards. There are now 3 million Mormons in Mexico and they have a goal of 30 million by 2020. Their missionaries are literally everywhere. There were also still some of the Hatch family at Colonia Juarez just a few years ago."
-- John Hart, Religion Writer
While Mitt's mother may have been an MGM film actress, Mitt's Y chromosome comes from his father, the late Michigan governor George W. Romney, who was born and raised in the Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico polygamy colony between the New Mexico and Texas borders. (One account cites his birthplace as nearby Colonia Dublan.) Ancestry of Mitt Romney
According to Jay Beswick, Parker represented both the now-unseated Hildale polygamist judge Walter Steed and convicted Colorado City polygamist cop Rodney Holm. Parker is with the law firm of Snow, Christensen and Martineau, which also represents the State of Utah. Rodney Parker is also the registered agent of the FLDS Corporations and Twin City Academy, Inc. in Hildale; all the above in good standing in the State of Utah.
Parker previously served in Bush I's administration as Associate Deputy Attorney General "on the immediate staff" of the Deputy Attorney General of the US in Washington, D.C.
Harold G. Christensen, Counsel at Snow Christensen, served as Deputy Attorney General of the US in both Bush I's and Ronald Reagan's administration. Martineau's official biography reveals that he was born in the Colonia Juarez polygamy colony where Mitt Romney's father grew up.
Benson is in conflict with federal law if Orrin Hatch is correct;
ReplyDeleteThe US outlawed multiple wives in the late 1800s with the passage of the Morrill and Edmunds-Tucker acts. The Supreme Court ruled in 1879, in George Reynolds v the United States, that religious beliefs - but not religious conduct - are protected by the First Amendment: "Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices" (U598:166)
Thus, the main Mormon Church abandoned the principle of polygamy in 1890 in compliance with federal law. The state of Utah, where most polygamous families lived, took further measures, and made plural marriage a third degree felony under a bigamy statute, punishable by five years' imprisonment.
According to Christopher Rosch, communications director, speaking for Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah): "By federal law, polygamy is not legal in the US including Utah, Idaho, Arizona or any other state. Enforcement of this statute is under the purview of law enforcement officials, and is not a matter of congressional jurisdiction."
Furthermore, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has declared polygamy a human rights violation and both the US and Canada have signed the Convention.
info by SM
So how does one go about filing an ethics complaint against Judge Benson ?
ReplyDeleteFunny you should ask. One of our board members is checking into that, right now.
ReplyDelete