Calls for crackdown on polygamist towns in AZ, Utah

By Jim Cross and Hanna Scott KTAR 92.3 - Phoenix

A Mohave County leader says it's time for Arizona to follow Texas' lead and act against the polygamist community of Colorado City. Meanwhile, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said local authorities are making progress in dealing with alleged abuse in Colorado City and that he's hopeful of getting help from the federal government. Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church's leader, Warren Jeffs, is jailed in Kingman, awaiting trial on charges of arranging marriages of underaged girls to much older men. Three weeks ago, Texas authorities raided a church compound near Eldorado, Texas, after a call purported to be from a 13-year-old girl, who said she had been forced to marry and was pregnant with an older man's child. Texas has taken custody of more than 400 children found at the compound named the Yearning for Zion Ranch. Maricopa County Supervisor Buster Johnson says 60 percent of the underaged girls taken from the Texas compound are pregnant or have had children. He suggested similar numbers may exist in Colorado City. "One way to put an end to all this is to go up to Colorado City and have all the women come out with their children and say, 'Okay, this is your child, you have a birth certificate, looks like you were 13 when you had this child. We have a crime,' and then use DNA tests to show exactly who the perpetrators were," Johnson said. Johnson said he sees a day coming when young girls who escape from the world of polygamy sue Mohave County and the State of Arizona for not protecting them. He said there is no defense. Johnson said he believes the state has authority to go into Colorado City, but he doubts it has the political willpower. He said federal authorities can move in because the girls have been taken across state lines and even international lines, going into Mexico and Canada. Mohave County has tried without much success to get help dealing with Colorado City, Johnson said. "We have been trying to get information out, we have met with the FBI and the U.S. attorney and everybody we can think of -- state officials," he said. "Nobody wanted to take any action up there. That's what bothered us. In the more than 10 years I've been involved, how many victims have come out that we haven't protected?" The polygamists are using religion as a license to abuse children, Johnson said, adding, "The abuse is not only with the girls, but also the boys now." He says the abuse is handed down from one generation to the next. "So it's not the regular mother we have out there who is trying to protect her children. These mothers have been victims, are continuing to pass on the victimization to the children." Meanwhile, Goddard said he has talked with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Utah, about Reid's criticism of the attorneys general of Arizona and Utah for failing to crack down on abuse in Colorado City and Hildale. Reid pledged "to redouble efforts to get more federal involvement in Colorado City and Hildale and that some of the assistance that we've been asking for for years may be forthcoming," Goddrd said. He said he hopes the feds will create a task force to look into the problems. The state, meanwhile, has been investigating what's going on in Colorado City, Goddard said. "There are continuing efforts in Colorado City and in Hildale, Utah, to enforce the law and to find any victims, especially of violence to children, and get them out of the community," he said. "We've had more and more success recently with getting calls to our hotline and getting people crying for help." He added, "We've got Child Protective Services presence up there, we've got the sheriffs with much increased scrutiny in the area and we've had a number of the county attorneys working for us up there." Besides the pending case against Jeffs, Goddard said there are several other active cases involving alleged child abuse in Colorado City.

KTAR.com Originally broadcast Friday, May 2, 2008

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