Officials meet to discuss polygamy
 
Mohave Valley News
Tri-State Online
 
ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) - Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard were scheduled to host a town hall meeting Thursday night to discuss efforts to help victims of domestic violence and child abuse in polygamous communities.

Heavy turnout was expected for the meeting, and both polygamists and those concerned with the practice were slated to attend. On Thursday before it started, the phone number for the group Hope for the Child Brides answered with a message that there was no seating left for those who hadn't already made reservations.

Security for the event was also expected to be high, with both Attorneys General present and a potentially contentious crowd.

The meeting is happening about 50 miles from the twin border towns of Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz., which are dominated by the several-thousand member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - perhaps one of the largest polygamous sects remaining.

Shurtleff has put increasing pressure on prosecuting polygamy, but said he doesn't intend to put people in jail simply because they hold multiple marriages. Instead, he said he's concerned with crimes the polygamous lifestyle is said to encourage, like forced child marriages and tax and welfare fraud.

Polygamy was a founding tenet of the Mormon church, which dominates Utah, but was abandoned in the 1890s as a condition of statehood. Still, it's believed that tens of thousands across the West continue to practice it.

Recently, officials in Arizona have also started focusing more closely on the alleged abuses in Colorado City.

They've set up a doublewide trailer in town with offices for the Mohave County Sheriff's Department, the state Attorney General, the Mohave County Attorney's Office and victims' rights workers.
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published March 4, 2005
 
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