Former members of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have provided enough evidence of misdeeds by their old lawyers for a lawsuit to proceed, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday.
The former sect members must still prove their case at trial, the appeals court said. The Denver-based appeals court only considered the narrow issue of whether federal judge Ted Stewart correctly dismissed a lawsuit filed against FLDS President Warren Jeffs and the law firm which used to represent his church, Snow Christensen & Martineau.
The plaintiffs filed suit in 2016, alleging the law firm portrayed themselves as being attorneys for each sect member, but helped Jeffs hide his crimes of child rape as well as child labor and the separation of families.