Justice Department sues group associated with Mormon sect for fences built on Forest Service lands
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DENVER (KDVR) — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado is suing a group of “unidentified persons” accused of trying to fence portions of U.S. Forest Service land in Montezuma County beginning in October.
The group calls itself the Free Land Holders and is trying to claim land in the Mancos/Dolores Ranger District of the San Juan National Forest under the Homestead Act of 1862.
Past coverage: Group associated with polygamous sect builds fences on US Forest Service lands
The group seems to be led by Patrick Pipkin, who is named in the lawsuit and was formerly associated with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a sect of the mainstream Mormon church that encourages members to engage in plural marriage or polygamy.
FLDS President Warren Jeffs, who is now incarcerated for various sexual offenses, once owned 60 acres near Mancos, which was put under court guardianship after his conviction, and is now called “Blue Mountain Ranch.” Free Land Holders is not directly associated with other FLDS groups that once owned the property, according to the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office.
However, the federal lawsuit alleges that Pipkin lives at Blue Mountain Ranch, which also shares non-contiguous borders with the area where the Free Land Holders fenced. The group used barbed wire to obstruct passage “across a large area” of the US Forest Service land near the Chicken Creek trailhead, which the U.S. Attorney’s Office said was part of the Hallar Deed Area.
The U.S. Forest Service said that officials met with the parties that constructed the fence and the Montezuma County Sheriff on Oct. 9, and told them in writing that “the fence is in trespass and must be removed immediately.”
Content retrieved from: https://kdvr.com/news/local/justice-department-sues-group-associated-with-mormon-sect-for-fences-built-on-forest-service-lands/.
