Utah Supreme Court Ruling, Filed May 1, 2009

                                  PART 1 - October 3, 2009.

          Virginia Hill vs. Estate of Owen A. Allred, Corporation of Apostolic United Brethren, J. LaMoine Jenson, Jenson Lumber, et.al.  Nos. 20030980 & 20060752

Ref:  Fourth District Court, Nephi, Utah, The Honorable Donald J. Eyre, Jr., No. 970400153.

            The Ruling consists of 22 pages indicating the Utah Supreme Court took the matter seriously. The ruling was prepared by Justice Nehring – Chief Justice Durham, Associate Chief Justice Durrant, Justice Wilkins and Justice Parrish concurring. 

            “#1. Virginia Hill appeals the order of the district court awarding her damages on her claims of civil conspiracy, conversion, and fraudulent misrepresentation and denying her claims of money laundering and racketeering.  Defendants cross-appeal, challenging the district court’s award of damages.  We affirm in part and reverse in part.”

            The Supreme Court first recaps the “Factual Background.”  For those that are not familiar with the background they can obtain a copy of the Utah Supreme Court ruling from the Court as it is public information.  Or they can read about it in Polygamy Under Attack, From Tom Green to Brian David Mitchell, my third book.  All of my books are available on Amazon.com.

            The background account in the Supreme Court ruling is a capsulated form confined to the legal issues only.  Polygamy Under Attack does delve somewhat into the personalities and religious beliefs that motivated this priesthood machination, labeled by the Supreme Court as “a pattern of criminal activity,” but it is far from complete and only whets the appetite to know more.

            Briefly, Virginia Hill divorced her unfaithful husband and turned all of her assets into cash. She moved to St. George, Utah to be near her mother and uncle, Danny Jackson.  Virginia’s history somewhat parallels that of her mentor, the paramour of Bugsy Siegel, the Chicago mobster who put Las Vegas on the map.  Harry Hilf, Virginia’s husband, was part of the Detroit mob and the FBI was closing in on Harry for a variety of crimes which is why Virginia converted her assets to currency, amounting to several million dollars. How loosely this money was handled is fodder for a novel.  Some of it was buried beneath the cement in Virginia’s garage.  UPS was used to transport over a million dollars from Detroit to St. George.  Rather than trust banks where the money could be accounted for, it was sequestered in cardboard boxes by both Virginia and Owen Allred. 

            As it turned out, her mother and Danny Jackson were deeply involved with a man named John Shugart who was a self appointed prophet starting up his own Mormon fundamentalist movement.  Shugart, a charismatic charlatan, gained Virginia’s trust and talked her into purchasing the Deseret Inn Ranch (DI Ranch), which was once the recreational ranch of the Las Vegas mob. 

            Shugart couldn’t broker the deal because he was hated by Herb Fletcher, the owner of the DI Ranch.  Shugart had been a bishop in Apostolic United Brethren affectionately called AUB, until he and Owen Allred, prophet and leader of AUB, had a falling out over a previous attempt to purchase the DI Ranch.  AUB is the second largest Mormon polygamist group with between five and seven thousand members. (to be continued)