St. George Summit
 
By Buster Johnson
Mohave County Supervisor
 
Wheels are starting to turn on investigating the abuse of women and children along with monies for the schools and welfare in the Colorado City area. This past spring, a tentative meeting was set up between Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Senator Linda Binder. As the summer progressed new developments came into play. AG Shurtleff successfully prosecuted Rodney Holm, ex-police officer of Hilldale/Colorado City.

With this court decision, the summit grew in attendees. The meeting was a chance for Utah and Arizona to finally sit down and make a plan that could possibly combine the efforts on both sides of the border. A joint task force was seen as the best solution to the tremendouse amount of investigation that needs to take place and would help with jurisdictional problems. Government decision makers, as well as law enforcement officials, were in attendance.

The meeting, while not meant to be secret, was scheduled to be a working session to find out what everyone had to offer and combine efforts, if possible. Word did get out and a sizable number of polygamists as well as anti-polygamists showed up. It was decided to take public comment. Nothing new was introduced by this testimony but it did give everyone there a chance to be part of the summit. The drawback was that the summit was to try and get a co-ordinated effort and a plan in place to move ahead with investigations. The limited time we had together was used up by this public testimony. Law enforcement was able to go ahead with their meeting and although I was not in that meeting, they all had positive comments afterwards. The policy making group that I was part of had limited time and will need to get together again without interruptions to work on our goals.

There has been discussion of a joint justice center in Colorado City. Mohave County is in the process of moving the Justice Court to Colorado City. This would be the opportunity for us to expand the facility to allow for other agencies to be head- quartered there. I am awaiting letters of request from all agencies interested so that I might approach the Board of Supervisors with this idea for their comments. To some, the Justice Center idea appears to be a big part of solving the problem of having a local place where victims can go for help. I have cautioned that these folks have been brainwashed since birth that all outsiders are the devil and they might not take advantage of this facility. I believe we need to consult with some who have escaped and get their input as to what type of facility and where the facility should be located so that we do not build something that no one takes advantage of. Another concern that I have is that the people might not trust some of the agencies involved due to prior contacts and we need to find a way to rebuild their trust.

Trust should come with victories such as AG Shurtleff's just accomplished. We all owe a great deal of thanks for the efforts of both Attorney Generals and Senator Binder. I see this as the first positive step in decades and can see hope for the future of these people.
 
MohaveCountyNews.com
Originally published September 3, 2003
 
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