When Seth Jeffs purchased 40 acres of land just off the Pike Lake Road in August, no one knew anything about his background. His plans include building a large pole barn with living quarters on the property. But when it was recently learned that Seth was a leader in a religious polygamous group that supports older men marrying underage girls, residents of Cook County, and across the state, took notice. A tree that held up a “No Trespassing” sign has been cut down near the entrance of the road. Staff photo/Hal Kettunen
Many Cook County residents were shaken to learn that Seth Jeffs, the brother of the infamous polygamist Warren Steed Jeffs, the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church), had purchased 40 acres of land in the county with the intention of building a 5,760-square-foot pole barn complete with living quarters on the Pike Lake Road.
KARE11 broke the news Thursday evening, January 17.
In 2011, Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life plus 20 years after he was convicted of two felony counts of child sexual assault. He had been the leader and prophet of the church since 2001or 2002, depending on which source is used.
Seth Jeffs, one of Warren’s seven brothers, is the reputed leader of an FLDS sect in the South Dakota Black Hills near a town called Pringle. He purchased the Pike Lake 40-acre parcel as the registered agent of Emerald Industries LLC for $88,000. The LLC is registered at Seths’ Eden Prairie address and at an address in Helena, Montana.
Seth, who is 45, also runs Emerald Craftmasters, a general contracting business in the Twin Cities that has been in operation for four years and lists two employees. In his online site, he said he has been remodeling and building homes and buildings from the ground up to finish for 25 years.
Since December 2018, an attorney from Salt Lake City, Utah, Alan Mortensen, had been looking for Seth after Seth had defaulted on a lawsuit alleging Seth had watched and helped arrange for his brother Warren to perform ritual sexual child abuse on underage girls and had done nothing to stop the abuse.
Mortensen is also the attorney for a young woman identified in court papers as “R. H.” who filed a complaint against defendants Warren S. Jeffs, Lyle Jeffs, Seth Jeffs, Wendell LeRoy Nielsen, and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, stating that as part of a FLDS religious ritual she was sexually abused by Warren Jeffs “on a regular basis, between five and six times a week, from the age of 8 years old until she turned 14.”
All of the FLDS defendants in the case were alleged to come out of an organization in the 1990s called the Priesthood Work, which was originated to preserve and perpetuate the practice of sex with underage and multiple women.
To maintain the polygamous practice, the UEP Trust was established under Utah law in 1942 by followers of The Priesthood Work.
In the lawsuit, it states, “One of the historical purposes of the UEP Trust was to provide housing to the faithful, obedient UEP Trust participants and their children. By the same token, its purpose was to support or enforce the directives of the President of the FLDS Church and Priesthood Work.”
Those that disobeyed orders to have sex with one of the leaders risked losing his or her family, home or opportunity to receive a home because family living arrangements and assignments, including the receipt of homes, was controlled by the president of the UEP Trust.
Although underage sex abuse was seldom openly discussed, the lawsuit filed by Mortensen says that members of the Priesthood Work and participants in the UEP Trust knew that underage sex took place with Priesthood leaders.
After Warren S. Jeffs took control of the church once run by his father, a new practice of having sex with girls, age 8 to 14 was initiated. The Twelve Apostles of the church (including Lyle Jeffs, Seth Jeffs, and others) witnessed the sexual relations with Warren Jeffs and the underage girls by “viewing, watching, taping, participating and documenting these sexual encounters,” states the brief.
In the court documents, R.H. asked that her name and location of where she lived not to be made known.
When R.H. was first taken from her home at age 8, a paper bag was placed over her head, and she was taken to an unknown location by a vehicle and once there, she was given a number and never called by name.
After being sexually assaulted five to six days on a weekly basis in unmanageable ways, she was told that if she ever talked about these sexual encounters that God would destroy her and her family immediately.
If R.H. cried during these encounters or was suffering pain, she was told God was unhappy with her.
Upon turning 14, R.H. was required to become a witness and document the encounters between young girls, Warren Jeffs, and the Twelve Apostles and document them.
At age 16 R.H. attended “Ladies Class” where she was to learn how to become a good wife. Part of those lessons involved being sexually assaulted by Lyle Jeffs.
When KARE11 interviewed Mortensen about his client, R.H., he said, “He (Seth) allowed it to happen and he witnessed it happening over and over and over to a young girl.”
Ever since he filed the lawsuit on Dec. 24, 2018, in the Third Judicial Court in Salt Lake City, Mortensen told KARE11 that his law firm had been looking for Seth Jeffs. Mortensen’s big break came earlier this month when he was told that Jeffs might be working as a handyman and living in a vacation home he had been hired to renovate in northern Minnesota.
When contacted, Mortensen, who is a partner and shareholder with the Utah-based law firm of Dewsup, King & Olsen, said Seth was also wanted for court-appointed unpaid child support and unpaid alimony. Seth was also convicted in 2006 of harboring or concealing his brother Warren and in 2016 he pleaded guilty to food stamp fraud.
In 2017, Lyle Jeffs was sentenced to prison for his role in the same food stamp fraud case and for leaving home confinement while he was on trial.
While Seth Jeffs comes (potentially) to Cook County with a less than sterling reputation and a legal cloud hanging over his head, he has done nothing wrong in the county, said Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliasen.
And when he learned that a tree bearing a “No Trespassing” sign had been recently cut down on the Jeffs’ property, Eliasen responded, “A report was made to the Cook County Sheriff ‘s Office concerning vandalism at a property on the Pike Lake Road. Upon inspection it was discovered that a tree bearing a ‘No Trespassing’ sign had been cut down on the property and this matter is currently under investigation.”
The purchased land
When asked about possible violations that might have occurred when Seth had his 900-foot-long driveway installed into the Pike Lake Road property, and other permitting that would have to be done to build a 5,760-square-foot pole barn with living quarters, Cook County Land Commissioner Tim Nelson replied, “The grading and filling activity to construct the driveway did end up impacting some wetlands, but the area and amount of impact fell within the allowed de-minimus exemption, and so there wasn’t any enforcement action needed.
“Every property is allowed to impact a certain amount of wetlands depending on the type of wetland and location of the property, and in Jeffs’ case, the impact was well within the exemption amount so after a further review there wasn’t any additional action needed.”
Nelson further stated, “In Minnesota, septic systems are sized by the number of bedrooms, and Jeff’s system is sized for six bedrooms, which is above average for single family residential dwellings, but not unheard of in our county.
“We do have larger very expensive homes where the septics are sized that big as well as regular sized homes with guest cabins that typically utilize the same system, so a system sized for six bedrooms is not all that uncommon up here. Finding enough good soil is usually the limiting factor.
“We do not require that property owners disclose the number of people living in a dwelling, but we would require a Conditional or Interim Use Permit if the property were used in a more intense manner than single-family residential.
“For example, one category for a Conditional Use Permit is 2 – 4 families in a single structure, which would require a public hearing with the planning commission and final decision by the Board of Commissioners.”
A little bit about FLDS church
The FLDS church broke off from the Mormon Church in 1898, so they could continue their practice of polygamy where older men often marry young girls. The main branch was located in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona, known as Short Creek. Under the rules of the sect, women are assigned to marry men, must keep their hair in a bun and wear prairie dresses that drape to their ankles.
When Warren Jeffs took over, he banned contact with the outside world, split families up, took young girls for his brides and excommunicated young men from the church. He was arrested and convicted of sexually assaulting girls that were aged 12 and 14. He called them his “spiritual wives.”
When Warren was convicted, it was estimated that he had married 80 women and girls.
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