Arizona Cracking Down On Leaders Of Polygamist Community
 
The Associated Press
KSL NewsRadio 1160
 
PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona authorities are putting pressure on leaders of a community of polygamists along the state's border with Utah.

Armed with a search warrant, authorities seized boxes of financial records, other documents and computers Tuesday as part of a two-year-old criminal investigation into alleged financial mismanagement of the Colorado City Unified School District.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said the maneuver was part of "a strategy to apply pressure in any legitimate way we can" to leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

The sect and its estimated 6,000 members control the school district, municipal government and most property in the isolated towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.

Goddard said he and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff agreed two years ago to try a coordinated crackdown on the sect's leaders after numerous complaints of sexual exploitation, welfare fraud and tax evasion.

Goddard said a new action is planned this week in Utah seeking to wrest control of the United Effort Plan, a church trust that controls FLDS property.

The trust may own as much as $200 million in real estate, cash and corporations, according to Goddard.

Arizona lawmakers recently passed a bill enabling the state to take control of school districts that are insolvent or suffer from gross mismanagement.

The law authorizes the Arizona Board of Education to appoint a receiver who can fire administrators and overrule decisions of elected trustees.

When the law becomes effective in August, Goddard said he'll ask the board to appoint a receiver to oversee the Colorado City school district, which has been plagued by deficit spending and bounced paychecks issued to employees.

A recent study showed that the school district overspent its budget by $432,000 last year and faces a 2005 deficit of $1.2 million.

Goddard said a search warrant, based on criminal allegations, was served to ensure that financial records do not disappear before a receivership can be established.
 
radio.ksl.com
Originally broadcast May 26, 2005
 
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