Cook County jury says cult leader’s brother owes Utah woman nearly $800,000

A Cook County jury decided in favor of Elissa Wall, a Utah woman looking to collect money tied to a Grand Marais land transaction conducted by a member of the infamous family at the top of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

After about 3 hours of deliberations, the jury said Wall should receive $250,000 from Seth Jeffs and $548,000 from his company Emerald Industries, money Wall believes has been funneled to Jeffs from his brother Warren Jeffs, the church’s imprisoned leader who was also named in the lawsuit but never responded to her claims.

It’s a fraction of the $10 million she is owed to her by Warren Jeffs, who she won a civil lawsuit against in Utah in 2017. Jeffs is in a Texas prison serving a life sentence for child sexual assault, but remains the church’s so-called prophet. He continues to lead the church through his writings and its members believe God speaks through him.

Seth Jeffs’ attorney William Paul, of Duluth, said he will appeal the decision.

The jury ruled that Warren Jeffs had transferred money to Seth Jeffs in an attempt to keep it from Wall.

The trial was conducted quietly this week in the small northeastern Minnesota tourist town on Lake Superior, far from the media attention Wall’s previous trial garnered. Wall, a practiced speaker who has spent years advocating for people who have left the church or are trying to, testified Wednesday. She was born into a polygamous family, Warren Jeffs married her off to a 19-year-old first cousin when she was 14, and she left the group four years later.

She has become a face for those who have left the church and has a bestselling memoir about her experience.

Wall’s Grand Marais-based attorneys called witnesses who were familiar with the church’s power structure and financial set up. All of its members’ money and belongings are shared throughout the group, with church leadership divvying it up. It is a fundamentalist group that broke from the Mormon church to continue practicing polygamy.

Seth Jeffs did not have a conventional job for a 12-year stretch until the mid-2010s and documents showed frequent payments from trusts associated with the church.

On Thursday, Seth Jeffs testified that he doesn’t know if he is a member of the church anymore, but that he continues to practice its teachings from a small farm in Menomonie, Wis. where he lives with his family. He claimed that he bought the land in Grand Marais using money he had made on his own, doing construction work, including on a cabin in Lutsen.

Writings seemingly by Warren Jeffs indicated that he wanted members to move east from Utah and buy land in wilderness areas. Seth Jeffs refused to read from the “revelations” in court, unsure that they were really recorded by his brother. If not, to read them would go against his religion, he said.