By Sara Burnett
Rocky Mountain News
April 10, 2008
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/apr/10/close-eye-kept-religious-sects-colorado-property/
Montezuma County authorities are keeping an eye on property near Mancos owned by the same religious sect whose Texas compound was raided last week, but they have no reason to believe anything illegal is happening there, Sheriff Gerald Wallace said Thursday.
"There's not a lot of activity," Wallace said of the two parcels located deep in southwest Colorado's San Juan National Forest. "We have not even seen any women or children."
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| Property owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Photo was taken in 2005. Photo by Rocky Mountain News |
Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bought land — a 60-acre parcel and a 40-acre parcel — northwest of Mancos in 2003 and 2004. At the time they told local authorities they were building a hunting retreat.
That was the same explanation FLDS leaders gave for their 1,700-acre property in Eldorado, Texas, authorities said.
Last week, after receiving a call from a 16-year-old girl who said she had been beaten and raped by her husband, police raided the compound. They removed 416 children. In a temple, they found beds believed to have been used after forced marriages between men and underage girls.
Wallace said that at the Mancos properties, which are about a quarter-mile apart, authorities have never seen more than a dozen men at one time. They usually are doing construction, he said.
But what exactly is going on, authorities aren't sure.
The property is secluded and any activity occurs far back from the main road and out-of-sight. The land is surrounded by barbed-wire cattle fences, and men are working on building a bigger fence, Wallace said.
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| A loghome on land owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Photo was taken in 2005. Photo by Rocky Mountain News |
There are locked gates at all entrances to the land, and a guard travels the perimeter of the property on an all-terrain vehicle.
Both properties were bought by David Allred, son-in-law of Warren Jeffs, the polygamist leader or "prophet" of the FLDS. Jeffs was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for using his religious influence to coerce a 14-year-old follower to marry her 19-year-old cousin.
Allred also was listed as the buyer
of the land in Eldorado, Texas. The sect also has property in Arizona, Utah and Canada, police said.
The Colorado land now is owned by two corporate entities related to the church, authorities say.
Scott Davis, deputy county assessor, said he has sent letters to the property owners asking to be let onto the property, but he has never heard back from them.
"There's been zero contact," he said.
Davis hasn't been on the land since it was first purchased. But he said there has been building going on, as well as remodeling of existing buildings.
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| Homes on land owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Photo was taken in 2005. Photo by Rocky Mountain News |
On the 40-acre property, the assessor's office estimates there are four buildings: an old ranch house, a large metal outbuilding that has been remodeled into living space, and two small log cabins, each approximately 400 square feet.
The 60-acre parcel has at least four residences, including at least two that are new, Davis said. One is a log home about 7,200 square feet in size. Another log home has about 4,500 square feet of living area, he said.
Though Davis has not been allowed on the property to assess it, the office has estimated its current value at $3.1 million.
The sect paid $1.4 million for the parcels, records show.
By law, the assessors office can't go onto the property without permission. In Montezuma County, building permits are not required, so no one can be sure how much construction is happening.
Wallace said sheriff's deputies also can't enter the area without probable cause to believe something criminal is occurring — which he doesn't have.
"We can't just walk up there and expect to go in," he said. "I know people (in the area) are aware, but like what happened in Eldorado, it's a group that keeps very much to itself."
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