Colorado City officials plead innocent
 
By JIM SECKLER
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN — The city manager and fire chief of Colorado City pleaded not guilty Tuesday to criminal charges after an April 2010 raid on their homes and the city’s fire station. On April 6, 2010, Mohave County law enforcement officers raided the fire stations in Colorado City and Hildale, Utah as well as Colorado City Manager David Darger and Colorado City Fire Chief Jacob Leonard Barlow’s homes. Colorado City, along with Hildale, is the home of the polygamist sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Darger was arraigned Tuesday in Superior Court on 10 counts of violating the duties as custodian of public funds, two counts of participating in a criminal syndicate and one count of assisting in a criminal syndicate. The actions allegedly occurred between February 2004 and April 2010. Darger had been elected the secretary-treasurer for the Colorado City Fire District.

Barlow was also arraigned on 27 counts of violating his duties as custodian of public funds, two counts of participating in a criminal syndicate and one count of assisting in a criminal syndicate. Barlow had also been elected the fire chief for the fire district, which is now governed by a five-member board.

Deputy Mohave County Attorney James Schoppman told the judge Tuesday that he may also file charges against the suspects based on a search warrant in Utah. Schoppman did not release an amount on the misused funds. He also said the rare charge of violating public funds had been used in Arizona and had fit the codefendant’s crime.

Superior Court Judge Steven Conn released Darger and Barlow on their own recognizance. The judge called the two cases "paperwork intensive." The prosecutor also gave both defense attorneys 27 compact discs containing evidence.

Conn set the suspect’s next hearing for Sept. 26. He set a deadline of Oct. 24 for defense attorneys to challenge the grand jury proceedings. A defendant tried and convicted of each of the participating in a criminal syndicate charges could face up to 12 years and six months in prison.

The county attorney’s office began its investigation in 2008, looking into the alleged misuse of the fire district’s credit cards for personal use such as purchases at restaurants, grocery stores, discount department stores and food and lodging at an Idaho resort, which was claimed to be for fire training. The fire district money was allegedly deposited into the suspect’s own bank account.

Seized in the raid were computer hard drives and cameras. The computers were examined by experts from the state’s Attorney General’s Office and the Arizona Department of Public Safety in Phoenix.
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published Wednesday, August 24, 2011
 
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