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What do you get when you mix wealth and power with intelligence, unbending determination, and intense personal hatred? The answer is Dan Fischer.

 

Dan Fischer’s conflict with Warren Jeffs goes back at least to the time that Dan was a member of the FLDS and enrolled his children in Alta Academy, the private school where Warren Jeffs served as principal. Dan’s dislike of Warren Jeffs seems to have had its origin in disagreements over school rules and dress code. An affidavit by Maggie Jessop, who worked as a teacher at Alta Academy, refers to bitter confrontations whenever Dan would attend the otherwise peaceful parent-teacher conferences. “Warren Jeffs literally could do nothing right in Dan’s eyes,” Maggie says.  He wanted Warren to resign as principal and let a “real” teacher take his place. Maggie goes on to praise Warren Jeffs’ teaching skills and says that on standard achievement tests, the students always scored in the top percentile ranks. In spite of Dan’s very vocal complaints, she insists that although Warren never fought back, he also stood firm on school rules.

 

Alvin Fischer and Marcia Barlow both mention in their affidavits an incident involving dress code that proved especially irritating to Dan. With his numerous business contacts, Dan appears to have desired his family to fit into mainstream society and not attract attention by dressing in the more restrictive FLDS style. Desiring to provoke a confrontation on the dress-code issue, which he felt was not a directive from the Prophet but only another of Warren Jeffs’ fussy requirements, he bought several hundred dollars worth of acid-washed denim, which he had made up into clothing for his children. He then took them to see FLDS Prophet Rulon Jeffs and asked him if they looked nice. Uncle Rulon acknowledged that they did, but told Dan that while he could have the children wear the clothing at home, they should follow the dress code at school.

 

Dan’s dislike of Warren Jeffs turned to hatred and active opposition after his father Erwin, at his own request, was separated from his family. Details of the separation are discussed in my previous article. (See also affidavits of Marvin Fischer and Melinda Fischer Jeffs.) Although this action was taken by the Prophet Rulon Jeffs, Dan blamed Warren and remarked to his brother Alvin, “Warren Jeffs is an evil man, and I am going to do all I can to put him out of society.”

 

In carrying out this personal vendetta, Dan has used his means and his influence to destroy Warren Jeffs and the FLDS religion that he once was a part of. With the exception of his direct testimony at the Senate Judiciary hearing on July 24, 2008, Dan has usually remained behind the scenes, maintaining his professional distance and manipulating others into making statements and taking action. Indirectly, however, Dan Fischer has been involved with the majority of the people and events that have targeted the FLDS religion.

 

►Through his Diversity Foundation for “Lost Boys,” Dan has bribed young men with leather jackets, iPods, alcohol, free trips to Lagoon ( an amusement park near Salt Lake City), etc., to make statements condemning their parents and the FLDS. One of the so-called Lost Boys wrote as follows:

 

“Why is it that the Lost Boys, Dan Fischer, and all these ‘helpful people’ will only offer their gifts and money to people who have turned against the FLDS church? They don’t want to worry about the people out in the world and all over the United States who are really being abused and neglected. No, they only want to use their money and tax money provided by the state to spread lies and persecute the people that they used to be a part of. I did not take any of their bribes in the form of charity. Anyone with any common sense can see that they don’t really care as much as they want to spread lies about the FLDS people.” (See “The Truth about the ‘Lost Boys’)

 

Even the number of Lost Boys has been greatly inflated. Estimates of 400 to 1000 boys are common. Michelle Benward’s New Frontiers for Families, an offshoot of the Diversity Foundation, places the number at over 2000. However, in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dan Fischer said that his organization has helped only about 230 young men. According to Shawn Landis writing on Suite 101.com, June 17, 2008, “Some of the Lost Boys have been kicked out of the FLDS church, but 90% of the Lost Boys have left the FLDS church of their own volition.”

 

In her Salt Lake Tribune blog of July 21, 2008, Brooke Adams makes the following observations regarding FLDS Lost Boys:

 

“I have interviewed a dozen or more of these teens and heard similar stories: They left or were asked to leave home after disputes with their parents over clothing, music, movies, girlfriends/boyfriends, money, religion or substance abuse problems.

 

“These are the same reasons teens leave home everywhere else in America, although the tolerance level for nonconforming behavior is far lower and the expectations for conformity much higher in the FLDS community.”

 

Brooke also examines census figures for Colorado City, showing that to match the lowest estimates for the number of Lost Boys every single boy in the community would have had to leave. Clearly, this has not been the case.

 

►According to the Salt Lake Tribune of April 1, 2007, Dan Fischer paid the legal fees of attorneys Roger Hoole and Greg Hoole, who filed the Lost Boys lawsuits against the United Effort Plan Trust in 2004, which resulted in the court takeover of the UEP in 2005 and appointment by Judge Denise Lindberg of special fiduciary Bruce Wisan. 

 

Since Wisan’s takeover of the trust, the towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, have entered a period of noticeable decline. Prior to this time, young men were assigned building lots on a monthly basis, and new homes were springing up all over the community. Since 2005, not a single new home has been started, existing homes and yards have deteriorated, private schools have closed, and major businesses have left the area. Only a year after the takeover, the Salt Lake Tribune of March 31, 2006, reported that Judge Lindberg was concerned about the deterioration of the twin towns and the loss of resources. “I won’t say they’re dying,” she said, “but they’re in significant disarray.”

 

Such is the predictable result where residents no longer feel secure in their homes and businesses or feel that their efforts of building the community are part of the living of a sacred gospel principle, the United Order.

 

►After Carolyn Jessop left the FLDS in April of 2003, she and her children lived in Dan Fischer’s guest house. 

 

►Elissa Wall records on page 347 of her book Stolen Innocence that she was persuaded to testify against Warren Jeffs by attorney Roger Hoole, whose fees in the Lost Boys suit were paid by Dan Fischer and who is on the Board of Directors of Dan Fischer’s Diversity Foundation.

 

►The Salt Lake Tribune of July 9, 2008, reports that private investigator Sam Brower, who has relentlessly harassed the FLDS in Utah, Arizona, Texas, and Colorado, was hired by the attorney firm of Gregory and Roger Hoole and therefore is indirectly an employee of Dan Fischer.

 

►Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff appeared with Dan Fischer on the steps of the state Capitol Building in July 31, 2004, for the news conference at which he launched his Diversity Foundation.

 

Shurtleff may also be indirectly connected with Dan Fischer through Jeremy Johnson, President of the St. George Company IWorks. SL Weekly.com of June 19, 2008, reports that Johnson, whose company is being investigated for fraud by the AG office, contributed two $25,000 checks to Shurtleff’s campaign fund, representing almost a third of the total donations of $161,625.

 

Johnson donated the “House off of Bluff” for Lost Boys to Michelle Benward’s New Frontiers for Families, an offshoot of Dan Fischer’s Diversity Foundation, and met Shurtleff at a fund raiser. A few days later Johnson made the campaign contributions. Shurtleff claimed that he was unaware that his office was investigating Johnson’s company on 55 counts of fraud.

 

 

Dan Fischer has used his intelligence and drive to become a successful dentist and businessman; there is much to be admired about his accomplishments. However, by employing these same talents to satisfy his own bitterness and hatred, he has harmed the lives of thousands of innocent people.