Smith: Colorado City work paying off
 
By Jennifer Bartlett
Kingman Daily Miner
 
KINGMAN ­ County Attorney Matt Smith said he is pleased with the progress the county has made with regards to the polygamist community of Colorado City and is cautiously optimistic about further progress.

In recent weeks, eight Colorado City men have been charged for alleged sexual abuse of minors, all related to "spiritual" but unlawful unrecorded marriages to girls younger than 18.

Smith was aware of the Colorado City situation when he took office.

"It's not about their beliefs," Smith said. "We're not going after polygamy from a legal standpoint. It is the underage 'pseudo-marriages' we're interested in putting a halt to. I think it's ridiculous for 15-, 16-, and 17-year-olds to be married off to much older men and having babies."

Smith stresses that Mohave County is not out to strike against religious beliefs centering around Colorado City.

Sexual relations with a minor by someone over the age of 21 is a crime that Smith and his office are trying to stop.

The appointment of investigator Gary Engels was what Smith believes got the ball rolling. Prior to the appointment of Engels by the Mohave County Board of Supervisors, the county attorney's office had one investigator on staff and could not spare this investigator to stay full time in Colorado City.

While Colorado City does have a police department, Smith did not believe that they would help to prosecute these men because they too are part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Smith said that he felt they would be too sympathetic to the men in their community to prosecute them for the Arizona state equivalent of statutory rape.

The Colorado City Police Department has assisted Smith before in prosecuting child sexual abuse cases, but they have all been younger children.

Smith pursued the idea of a private investigator, in conjunction with the supervisors, with the awareness that the police department would not be interested in pursuing cases involving young "married" teenagers.

Putting Engels in the thick of things has allowed the county to get a firmer grasp on the situations progressing within the Colorado City community, Smith said. Engels has been able to build a network and earn the trust of some of the people.

According to Smith, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs has alienated quite a few people within the Colorado City community by kicking people out of the church and taking their families away.

Some of them have needed to seek court orders in order to see their children. Some of these members have started to talk to the investigator.

A few of the victims have also begun to step forward and tell their stories.

With more and more trust, they are beginning to chip away at the cycle of child marriages, Smith said.

The county attorney said he is pleased with the progress that has been made in current indictments.

He views the indictments and prosecution of these men as a possible deterrent to halt the marriages and early motherhood of these young teenagers who have little to no say in the marriages.

"During grand jury testimony, one young girl testified that she met with Warren Jeffs when she was 16. Soon after, her parents informed her that she would be getting married the next day. She asked to who. Her parents said they weren't sure. She had never met the guy before and was driven to be married the next day by Jeffs. The man was 12 years older than her," Smith said.

Smith is concerned about having people testify at trial.

They have had problems serving grand jury subpoenas to parents of young girls. Smith said they have either fled or are in hiding.

People who did testify to the grand jury are now being pressured to keep their mouths shut. Smith also said that even if they are able to subpoena people to testify, there is no guarantee that they will answer questions, even under the penalty of contempt.

Most of the cases they have going right now are paper cases, Smith said. Engels has gathered birth and marriage records, proving that the young mothers were 16 or 17 at the time of conception and that they were not these men's first brides.

Smith said there is a new law that should help him in future cases.

Arizona recently passed a new child bigamy law in which it makes it a crime to be married and take a second wife under the age of 18.

However, in most of the crimes the office is currently prosecuting, the women are no longer under the age of 18.

The county will continue to pursue these crimes, Smith said.

"We're going to keep plugging along, no matter what," he said. "We're trying to get as many witnesses as we can. We want to show these young people that it is possible to get out. We also want to show them that we will protect them. Most of all, we want to stop Warren Jeffs from performing these underage ceremonies."

Smith is pleased with the support he has gotten from county government. He praises the supervisors for approving the hiring of investigator Engels, for the new attorneys that are being hired, and the installing of the building on Mohave Community College property in Colorado City for the investigator's use.

"The county has stepped up to the plate," Smith said.

Seemingly as a result of these investigations and prosecutions, the population of Colorado City has begun to thin out. While Smith denounces rumors of a mass exodus, he says there have been people that have left the confines of Arizona for the compound in Texas. He said that when the compound was planned, it was planned that some of the people would go there, but it's really not big enough for the whole community.

Smith said he expects the population to continue to thin out, making him wonder if his witnesses will leave his jurisdiction before they can be subpoenaed. He doubts, however, that Colorado City will fade away completely.

He also said that there are a lot of good people living in Colorado City, and he hopes this will be a successful deterrent for marrying off girls under the age of 18.
 
kingmandailyminer.com
Originally published August 17, 2005
 
Back