Colorado City man faces five felony charges
 
By Jim Seckler
Kingman Daily Miner
 
A Colorado City man faces five felony counts of unlawful sex with two minors who became his wives.

The complaints were filed Feb. 27 in Mohave County Superior Court against Orson William Black Jr.

Black, a polygamist, is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor and three counts of sexual conduct with a minor. He is charged with having sexual intercourse with two women who became his wives.

The first count of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor charges Black with sexual contact between May 1998 and August 1999 with a female who was at least 15 years old. The second count charges him with having sexual contact with the same woman on August 7, 1999.

The three counts of sexual conduct with a minor charges him with having sexual contact with another female who was at least 15 between November 1998 and July 2001, between June 1, 1999, and July 31, 1999, and on or about July 2001. Black is not in custody.

Colorado City just south of the Utah border in the Arizona Strip, is noted for the home of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints, an offshoot of the Mormon Church that accepts polygamy. Members also live in nearby Hildale, Utah.

The practice is still reportedly found in rural areas near the Arizona/Utah border. Colorado City, believed to have the largest polygamous population in the country, has a population of about 3,200.

The Mormon Church banned polygamy in 1890 as a condition of statehood. Polygamy is the practice of a man having more than one wife.
 
KingmanDailyMiner.com
Originally published Thursday, March 13, 2003
 
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