Fifth District Judge G. Rand Beacham set a hearing for July 23 on the action sought by Willie Jessop.
Jessop, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, filed the request against private investigator Sam Brower on Tuesday. He claims Brower has a "long history of following and photographing FLDS members," often leading to confrontations, and has engaged in a "pattern of continual harassment" that includes making disparaging comments about Jessop to the mediaÂ.
The order requires Brower and anyone working to stay 500 feet away from Jessop's homes and offices in Hildale, Canaan Gap, Cedar City and San Angelo, Texas.
The investigator has helped develop cases against the FLDS over the past four years, working for attorneys Roger and Greg Hoole of Salt Lake City.
He said Wednesday the order is retaliation for his role in a Texas child welfare case that involves the daughter of jailed FLDS president Warren Jeffs.
Brower provided an affidavit for Natalie Malonis, an attorney who alleged Jessop was exercising too much influence over Jeffs' 16-year-old daughter. A judge ordered the girl's mother to keep her away from Jessop.
''All those allegations are just simply not true,'' Brower said. ''I'm not surprised that desperate people do desperate things and I'm sure (the FLDS) are getting desperate. They are trying to divert attention from the real issues.''
Jessop emerged as as spokesman for the sect after Texas authorities raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado in April. Brower has previously described him as an "enforcer" and bodyguard for sect leader Warren S. Jeffs.
Jessop claims Brower took a television news crew to Hildale on June 7 and scaled a 6-foot-high wall in order to take pictures of Jessop's home and yard.
He later went to Jessop's ranch in Canaan Gap and, ignoring "no trespassing" signs and locked gates, again began photographing children and other family members, court papers said.
The intrusions have frightened Jessop's children and invaded the family's expectation of privacy, the filing states.
brooke@sltrib.com
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* THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this story.
