Colorado City government center opens
 
By Jim Seckler
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN -- A joint county and state government facility opened for business Monday in the troubled community of Colorado City.

The county placed the 2,000-square-foot modular building on about a half acre of land owned by Mohave Community College.

The building will house Mohave County Sheriff's Office deputies, deputy county attorneys and state officials from the Child Protective Services and the Attorney General's Office.

Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan said his deputies will start rotating in and out of the building between Beaver Dam and Colorado City.

In the past, sheriff deputies were based about an hour away in the Beaver Dam area. The county justice court is currently located in nearby Moccasin.

Sheriff deputies will also share office space with Washington County (Utah) sheriff deputies.

Sheahan said he and Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith are expected to meet later this month with the Utah Attorney General's Office and other officials to discuss changes in protocols in handling crimes in that city.

One of the changes would be sheriff detectives will now investigate all sexual-related crimes and crimes against children, not the Colorado City police force, even if the incident occurs within the city limits, Sheahan said.

The facility will also include an interview room as a place for victims to go to feel safe. In the past, victims of polygamy did not have a place to go.

"This is the first step," Count Manager Ron Walker said. "And it's the only step anyone has taken."

Earlier this year, the Board of Supervisors approved spending about $200,000 for the modular plus utilities, and site preparation.

The Board also approved a $41,000 federal grant to pay for a victim's advocate to work in Colorado City with the Mohave County Attorney's Office.

The county attorney's office is also in the process of hiring an investigator to be housed at the facility to investigate charges of child abuse.

Colorado City has been the focus of a polygamous sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Church leader Warren Jeffs has excommunicated hundreds of church members leading to their removal from the small community of about 6,000 located on the Arizona, Utah border.

Most of the national attention has focused on reports of arranged marriages of underage girls to already married church leaders in the polygamous community.
 
mohavedailynews.com
Originally published August 11, 2004
 
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