AG Shurtleff visits S. Utah to push hotline
 
By Rachel Olsen
rolsen@thespectrum.com
Nick Adams/The Spectrum Polygamous women at conference

Elizabeth, right, who gave only her first name, raises her hand to ask a question of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff on Thursday at a press conference. Elizabeth and other women representing the community of Centennial Park, Ariz., told Shurtleff that until plural marriage is decriminalized, attempts by law enforcement to reach out to polygamous communities will not be successful.
 


On The Net Domestic Violence Hotlines

http://www.informationandreferral.org/DV.htm

- Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff: http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/

- The Utah Domestic Violence Information Line is toll-free, anonymous and confidential and can be accessed from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily at 1-800-897-5465. After business hours, victims can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.

ST. GEORGE -- Outside the Washington County Courthouse on Thursday, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff reminded polygamists of the resource of the Utah Domestic Violence Information Line.

The Utah Domestic Violence Information Line answers calls and provides help and information when individuals find themselves in a violent situation. As part of the effort to make the hotline more useful to those seeking help in polygamist cultures, the staff answering phone calls received sensitivity training for plural wives from those who live in and those who have left the polygamist lifestyle, said the hotline's coordinator, A.J. Hunt.

While Shurtleff said abuses are not unique to polygamist communities, the hotline would help the government and agencies reach out to everyone in the state -- even those in closed societies.

"This is the beginning of our efforts to provide assistance to those underserved in the community," Shurtleff said.

"The state and county are here to help ... we are not the enemy," he said.

Shurtleff also said his office was working to erect a billboard advertising the anonymous and confidential service in Hildale, the polygamous stronghold near the Arizona border.

The need to advertise and extend the services of the hotline was brought to Shurtleff's attention in an August meeting in Centennial Park, a community located near Colorado City, Ariz., he said.

However, Elizabeth, a resident of Centennial Park who would only give her first name, said as long as polygamy was against the law, there would not be very many calls to the hotline from polygamist communities.

She said she would be surprised if even five or six people from polygamist cultures called the hotline in the next six months. After the Short Creek Raid 50 years ago, she said, it is difficult for any polygamist to trust the government.

Besides information, the hotline directs individuals to the DOVE Center, a domestic violence shelter in St. George.

Linda Whitlock, director of the DOVE Center, said the shelter provides programs with choices, as well as a home.

The Utah Domestic Violence Information Line was established in the fall of 1993. It is an anonymous, free information line, which served approximately 5,000 people in 2003 -- 36 percent of which were Utah's children, Hunt said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Friday, February 13, 2004
 
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