FLDS man sues Ariz. over loss of police job
 
By Jennifer Dobner
Associated Press
The Arizona Republic
 
SALT LAKE CITY - A former police officer from a polygamous community has filed a lawsuit against Arizona officials, claiming he was defamed and his civil rights violated when they revoked his police certification.

Attorneys for Preston Barlow filed the lawsuit Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix. Named as defendants are Attorney General Terry Goddard, two investigators and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.

Barlow's certification was revoked in September 2007 after allegations of misconduct the previous year.

The lawsuit contends that Barlow, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was targeted for his faith and misled about the nature of the investigation that ended with his decertification and the loss of his job.

Barlow, 30, is one of at least six officers from the Colorado City Town Marshal's office to be decertified by authorities in Arizona or Utah since 2003, some for the practice of polygamy, a tenet of the FLDS faith. Barlow is the first to file a civil rights lawsuit against officials in either state.

"The FLDS people are no longer going to allow the state to ignore their constitutional rights and they are going to hold the state accountable when it does trample on those rights," Parker said Monday.

In addition to unspecified punitive damages, legal fees and lost wages, the lawsuit seeks Barlow's reinstatement as a police officer and a retraction of statements which Barlow believes were defamatory.

Goddard spokeswoman Anne Hilby declined comment Monday, saying the office has not yet been served with the lawsuit. A telephone message seeking comment from Arizona POST Director Lyle Mann was not immediately returned.

In 2007, POST's then-director Tom Hammarstrom said Barlow's decertification stemmed from his refusal to cooperate with multiple inquiries, including a civil investigation of allegations that Colorado City police failed to enforce court orders related to property held in a church trust and a criminal investigation into the whereabouts of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, then a fugitive from criminal charges. A former paramedic and police dispatcher, Barlow graduated with honors from Utah's police academy in October 2005. He then sought certification from Arizona, taking a polygraph and law enforcement competency tests. He was certified as a police officer on March 2, 2006.

Investigators from Goddard's office launched an investigation 26 days later with an unannounced visit to the Colorado City marshal's office, according to the lawsuit.

Barlow's attorneys contend the investigation was labeled an "inquiry" related only to improving law enforcement and not related to the religious affiliation of deputies.

But portions of the transcript included in court filings show Barlow was asked to identify FLDS religious leaders, about Jeffs' location, if he had communicated with Jeffs or whether the church leader had directed the activities of the police department.

Barlow declined to answer most of the questions — some of which were hypothetical — saying he didn't know the focus of the investigation and felt the questions were not pertinent, court documents state.

"I don't think it was fair for (investigators) to set up hypothetical questions designed to play him in this very difficult moral dilemma," Parker said.

In a subsequent administrative hearing before the POST board, Barlow was also asked if he was an FLDS member and whether he believed the church's religious teachings. Barlow again declined to answer, citing his right to religious freedom.

Barlow answered, "Yes," however, when asked whether he would arrest Jeffs if the church leader were located. An administrative judge said Barlow's refusals to answer were grounds for decertification.

The lawsuit contends that investigators lacked the evidence to prove that Barlow had or would have failed to perform his duties as a police officer.

Colorado City police also provide services to Hildale, Utah and officers are certified in both states. After decertification by Arizona, Barlow voluntarily surrendered his Utah certification.
 
azcentral.com
Originally published Sept. 21, 2009
 
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