Probe of Colo. City deaths urged
 
By Caleb Soptelean
Today's News Herald
 
A high-ranking state official agreed Sunday there needs to be more light put on the deaths of Colorado City children.

Attorney General Terry Goddard and Flora Jessop made their remarks before a gathering of Mohave County Democratic Party faithful at Hualapai Mountain County Park on Sunday afternoon.

Jessop - who escaped from the polygamous community in Mohave County near the border with Utah 20 years ago - called for an investigation into the children's deaths.

Colorado City and the adjoining community of Hilldale, Utah, are largely under the control of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members still engage in polygamy.

"The number of children dying from being run over is alarming." She said children were "drinking pure hydrogen peroxide."

Goddard said the situation should be "looked into," but noted that Sunday was the first time he heard of two-year-old children being run over with automobiles.

Jessop said there are a number of children who are stillborn or born with birth defects because of inbreeding. "Children are being born without all their organs" or have organs on the outside of their bodies.

"Education is needed, abuse education," Jessop said.

Live births are not recorded the same way in Colorado City as they are in the rest of the state, and there is no hospital there, only a nursing or birthing facility, Goddard said.

A lot of families are enrolled in health care programs in both Utah and Arizona, which he said "is not necessarily illegal.

"There have been some major changes in how welfare payments are made," Goddard said.

He's had a number of meetings with the state Department of Economic Security and found out there were only two cash payment requests made by Colorado City families last year.

Goddard and Jessop credited Mohave County for prosecuting nine Colorado City men for sexual conduct with minors. County Attorney Matt Smith is directing the prosecutions of eight Colorado City men. A search warrant has been issued for the leader of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs.

The attorneys general of Arizona and Utah have offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Jeffs.

When asked what else he is doing about Colorado City, Goddard said he is participating as an interested party in the lawsuit against the United Effort Plan that has controlled most of Colorado City.

Goddard's office is "still going through" some 100 boxes and 60 computers that were seized from the Colorado City Unified School District earlier this year. "It's a huge amount of material."

Goddard said he gave a petition to the state Board of Education on Aug. 12 asking it to put the Colorado City Unified School District in receivership. He said it has 35 days from Aug. 12 in which to act.

"It's been a crazy six years since I started actively fighting for children," said Jessop, who got involved after her stepsister "almost died from rape on her wedding night because of severe hemorrhaging."

Jessop said her next goal is to build a "transition center" in Colorado City "to give women who want to leave a safe place to go." She said Colorado City women need to be designated "American refugees."

Goddard said that when he ran for office in 2004, "I didn't think Hildale (Utah) and Colorado City would be quite such an issue."

He noted an 800 number has been set up for women and children to call and billboards have been posted in the area.

Lake Havasu City resident and Mohave County Democratic Party chairman Ernie Brannon credited Goddard and Gov. Janet Napolitano for their efforts on Colorado City. "The Republicans don't do it," he said.

Goddard later spoke about Napolitano's recent emergency declaration in regard to Arizona's border with Mexico.

"We've had an emergency situation on the border for some time. Arizona's paying a very, very high price." He noted that more than 50 percent of illegal immigrants cross into the Untied States at the Arizona border.

"This costs us law enforcement dollars, incarceration dollars ... and huge health care costs. The governor finally said, 'We're sick of it.'"

The federal government refused to train the Arizona Department of Public Safety to help on the border, he added, but the governor's emergency declaration will help with this problem monetarily.

The federal government "has left Arizona high and dry ... because there's much more border enforcement in California and Texas."

Goddard said his office "has been prosecuting 'coyotes' and taking their resources." He called the human smugglers "hardened criminals."

Goddard criticized the Republican-led Legislature for not passing a methamphetamine bill that would have restricted the purchase of pseudoephedrine products over the counter.

"Our Legislature dropped the ball. They made a serious mistake by not passing bills Oklahoma and other states passed."

Oklahoma has seen a 70 percent reduction in the number of meth labs in that state since its law went into effect, Goddard said.

You can contact the reporter at soptelean@havasunews.com.
 
havasunews.com
Originally published August 21, 2005
 
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