AGs to host public meeting
 
By Patrice St. Germain
patrices@thespectrum.com
IF YOU GO

 The public is invited to attend a free town hall meeting featuring Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Dixie Convention Center, 1835 S. Convention Center Drive, St. George.

After remarks from Shurtleff and Goddard, the following panelists will speak:
  • Maureen Crump, a Safe Passage Grant case manager who has been assisting victims of domestic violence from polygamous communities,

  • LeAnne Timpson, charter school principal in Centennial Park,

  • Fawn Broadbent, teen and former resident of Colorado City,

  • Natalie Hammon, high school basketball coach in Colorado City,

  • Gary Engels, Mohave County Attorney's Office investigator assigned to Colorado City.
Audience members will have the opportunity to make comments or ask questions of panel members.

ST. GEORGE - Communities that are socially isolated may not have the same access to services afforded to other communities - especially when it comes to safety and justice.

Hildale and Colorado City are, in some ways, isolated because of the religious beliefs of the majority of residents.

The Utah and Arizona attorneys general will be discussing efforts to reach out to residents in those communities at a town hall meeting on Tuesday.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said although his office has limited resources, it is committed to doing more to help people from polygamist backgrounds, and the general population should care because people in those communities are their neighbors.

"The burden to bring perpetrators to justice and provide protection for victims doesn't just rest with the Attorney General's Office. It is the responsibility of everyone in the states of Utah and Arizona," Shurtleff said. "I am hoping that people will come to the meeting and learn how they can take part in this historic endeavor."

The town hall meeting and training for social workers, law enforcement officers and others offering help in these communities are being paid for by a grant from the National Crime Victim's Week and the Department of Justice.

Shurtleff said many crimes will be covered in the town hall meeting, but the main focus is on victims from isolated communities.

This is the third such meeting the attorneys general have sponsored. Shurtleff said efforts to help those in polygamist communities started with the Safety Net Committee, which has been holding monthly safety net meetings for four years.

The meetings are helping to create open dialogue between the government, nonprofit and polygamist communities and have served as the launching point for many accomplishments, including establishing support groups for women and teens from polygamist communities.

Arizona established a state and county resource center in Colorado City that is providing office space for Mohave County and Washington County law enforcement and the Mohave County Attorney's Office has assigned an investigator and victim advocate to Colorado City.

Attempts to reach Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard were unsuccessful.

Gary Engels, the investigator for the Mohave County Attorney's Office, has worked out of the Colorado City office for more than two years.

Because Engels has spent so much time in the community, Engels has seen firsthand some of the inroads the various organizations have made in helping those in the twin cities.

"We have had some success in the criminal prosecution," Engels said of the Mohave County Attorney's Office. "We have indicted nine (men) and convicted four and have sent a message to the community that underage marriages will not be tolerated."

The majority of residents in Colorado City and Hildale are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose religious leader, Warren Steed Jeffs, 51, is currently in jail.

Jeffs is facing two charges of rape as an accomplice for allegedly arranging the marriage of an underage girl to her cousin. Jeffs faces similar charges in Arizona.

Engels said more and more people in the communities are getting out of Jeffs' idea of religion and are starting to think for themselves again.

But that doesn't mean they are turning to organizations that have been set up to help them.

"They are not beating down our doors, but we are hearing from more people all the time," Engels said. "It's not time to give up but continue to work on this. It's a slow process and it didn't get this way overnight."

Shurtleff said all polygamous communities are not the same and all polygamous families are not the same.

"Some polygamists share the blame for the isolation. Some folks from 'mainstream society' share the blame for creating barriers that lead to isolation. The biases go both ways on this issue," Shurtleff said.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published April 23, 2007
 
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