Money is running out to pay county sheriff’s deputies to patrol the polygamous community of Colorado City, forcing Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne to ask lawmakers for funding.
Last summer, Horne allocated nearly $500,000 in discretionary funds to pay the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department to station deputies in the city on the Arizona/Utah border. But that money will run out at the end of June, and Horne’s office says they don’t have the funds to continue.
The presence of the county deputies is in addition to law enforcement already provided by a shared Marshal’s Office of Colorado City, Arizona and its twin city Hildale, Utah.
The area is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which is run by imprisoned-prophet Warren Jeffs. The 57-year-old leader is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting underage girls.
“Here they think God’s law,” said Colorado City resident and ex-FLDS Isaac Wyler of the local police force. “They’re literally a security arm of the church.”
Just last week, Wyler said he called 911 when someone tried crashing into his truck. Wyler said the person driving the truck was trying to illegally enter property that Wyler had been asked to monitor.
“They just headed straight for me in their truck,” Wyler said. “I just floored it as hard as I could; just barely avoided an accident.”
He followed the car and says he got video of it running numerous stop signs. He passed along the license plate number and offered the video to the Marshal’s office, but says they wouldn’t help.
“I thought 911, you know, an officer or somebody would get a hold of me, and nothing,” Wyler said. “Not even a call back.”
The incident happened on the Utah side of the border, but Wyler says had it happened in neighboring Colorado City, he could have called directly to the Mohave County Sheriff.
“It’s very good to have them here,” Wyler said of the Mohave deputies. “It’s been important for the people here that don’t feel like they have law enforcement, that they’ve got someone that they can call.”
Attorney General Horne has long been critical of the Colorado City/Hildale Marshal’s Office, saying it should be stripped of its powers because officers do the bidding of FLDS leaders and discriminate against those outside the polygamous sect.
This January, he also made new allegations that the police force is acting in concert with the FLDS Church to keep women and children captive.
“It’s the biggest injustice that I know of in the State of Arizona,” Horne said at a January 22nd press conference in Phoenix. “Women who’ve wanted to escape have been forcibly held by the marshals against their will.”
Horne called on the Arizona Legislature to pass legislation to shut down the towns’ Marshal’s Office.
“The first priority is to get objective policing because the Marshal is under control of the dominant church and they discriminate against people who don’t belong to the church,” Horne said at the time.
Legislation was introduced to deal with police officer misconduct but was watered down and did not specifically mention Colorado City. House Bill 2648 overwhelmingly passed the House but died in the Senate.
Without a legislative mechanism to deal with the Colorado City, Horne’s office is looking to lawmakers to provide funding to continue paying Mohave County deputies to patrol the area.
Attorneys for Colorado City and Hildale say they don’t mind the presence of the county deputies but adamantly deny allegations that the Marshal’s Office follows orders from FLDS leaders.
Jeff Matura, attorney for Colorado City, says they have asked for evidence to support the allegations and have not received any.
Matura said legislation targeting the Marshal’s Office is unnecessary because there are procedures already established in both Utah and Arizona to decertify law enforcement officers accused of misconduct.
“If the Attorney General’s Office has evidence of wrongdoing they should arrest and prosecute as any law enforcement agency would,” Matura said in January in response to Horne’s allegations.