| Shurtleff says FLDS prayed for his death | |
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By Dennis Romboy Deseret News | |
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says Fundamentalist LDS Church members prayed for his demise after his motorcycle accident last year. Speaking at a Salt Lake County Bar Association panel discussion Wednesday, Shurtleff said FLDS leaders view him as the "anti-Christ" and asked their congregation to "fast and pray" for his death. Shurtleff was severely injured on his Harley-Davidson last year while preparing for a motorcycle rally. "Mark, try to come up with facts," retorted Rod Parker, a lawyer and spokesman for the FLDS Church. "You don't know that." "I do know that," Shurtleff replied, saying the information was relayed to him through a confidential informant. Shurtleff and Parker joined retired University of Utah law professor Ed Firmage in a lively discussion about polygamy with about 100 local attorneys at the Marriott Hotel. The program was scheduled before authorities raided the FLDS Church's ranch in Eldorado, Texas, earlier this month. Much of it centered on constitutional and due process issues. Firmage, who specializes in constitutional law, called the roundup of women and children "one of the most outrageous things I have ever seen." Particularly egregious, he said, was taking children from their families based on telephone calls from a 16-year-old girl named "Sarah" claiming she had been beaten, was pregnant and married to a 50-year-old man at the YFZ Ranch. "It seems to me the defenders of the Alamo have stood in a circle and shot this metaphoric Sarah," Firmage said. Parker insists the calls were a hoax and authorities are investigating whether a Colorado woman may have made those calls to Texas. The national media has criticized Shurtleff, saying, in his words, "I ought to cowboy up and be more like Texas authorities." But, he said, the FLDS Church "wouldn't be in Texas if we hadn't gone after them here. No doubt about it." Utah, he said, doesn't have the resources, manpower or foster care system to handle a Texas-size raid. Rather than a show of force, the state has chosen to form good relations with polygamist sects and focus on crimes like men marrying underage girls. In 2003, former Hildale police offer Rodney Holm was convicted of bigamy and unlawful sex with a minor. Shortly thereafter, Shurtleff said, the FLDS Church bought property in Colorado and Texas. "They know in Utah we are coming after them for child-bride marriages," he said. Shurtleff said he can't defend how Texas authorities raided the ranch but asked Parker how it could have been done since the compound is so isolated and closed. "I don't know how you do it. I know how you don't do it. You don't show up with a tank at the gates with an army," Parker said. Texas authorities, he said, are putting a religion on trial while trampling on the individual rights of church members. "This isn't about Sarah. This is about all the other people," he said. One attorney asked Parker why FLDS men marry teenage girls. "I know we have a lot of rumor and misinformation about it," he said. "Not all of the marriages are to old men." Parker said the matter is complex and goes back more than a hundred years. "These people live in the 19th century," he said. Shurtleff took issue with that, saying former FLDS members have told him child brides are common. He also didn't buy the argument that church members don't live in the 21st century. "All I care about is what is going on today," he said. E-mail: romboy@desnews.com | |
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deseretnews.com Originally published Thursday, April 24, 2008 | |
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