Colorado City manager indicted on 13 charges
 
By JIM SECKLER
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN — The Colorado City manager has been indicted on 13 criminal charges after an April 2010 raid on his home and the city’s fire station.

Colorado City Manager David Darger was indicted 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 violations allegedly occurred between February 2004 and April 2010, Deputy Mohave County Attorney James Schoppman said.

Darger had been elected the secretary-treasurer for the Colorado City Fire District. The fire district is now governed by a five-member board.

Colorado City Fire Chief Jake Barlow was also indicted Aug. 4 on 27 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. Barlow had also been elected the fire chief for the district.

Darger and Barlow are expected to be arraigned Tuesday in Kingman before Superior Court Judge Steven Conn. Each charge of the participating in a criminal syndicate carries a potential prison sentence of up to 12 1/2 years.

The investigation, which began in 2008, looked 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 even food and lodging at an Idaho resort, which was claimed to be for training.

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.

On April 6, 2010, Mohave County law enforcement officers raided the fire stations in Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, as well as Darger and Barlow’s homes. Colorado City and Hildale comprise the home of the polygamist sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church.

Warren Jeffs, the church’s self-proclaimed prophet, was recently convicted and sentenced to life in prison on rape charges in Texas. He was charged with sexual conduct with a minor charges in two 2007 Arizona cases but the charges were dismissed in June 2010.
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published Monday, August 22, 2011
 
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