Polygamist town police officers stripped of their badges
 
The Associated Press
ABC 4
Marshal car

ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) - The Utah agency that certifies police officers will open its own case after two people were stripped of their badges in Arizona, an official said Thursday.

Colorado City, Ariz., Marshal Fred Barlow and a deputy, Preston Barlow, work both sides of the Utah-Arizona border in communities where many residents belong to a polygamous sect.

The Barlows were decertified in Arizona on Wednesday after an investigation found them guilty of misconduct.

Utah officials were waiting for a decision by Arizona before pursuing their own investigation, said Maj. Rich Townsend, executive director of Police Officer Standards and Training, known as Utah POST.

The case centered on allegations that the Barlows failed to cooperate in civil legal proceedings involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and a criminal probe of its embattled president, Warren Jeffs.

The Barlows can appeal to an Arizona court. Phone calls to their attorneys seeking comment were not immediately returned.

"Arizona received the information first, and we just didn't feel like it was right or appropriate for Utah to jump right in the middle of it," Townsend said.

He said he'll meet with Hildale, Utah, Mayor David Zitting next week to discuss what the city plans to do with the Barlows. Hildale pays Colorado City $12,000 a year for police services, according to the contract.

It's possible the Barlows could voluntarily surrender their Utah credentials, Townsend said.

Since 2003, six officers working in the twin towns have been decertified for various reasons, including polygamy, a central tenet of the FLDS church. The action against the Barlows leaves Colorado City with six officers.

Jeffs, 51, is on trial here in St. George, in southern Utah's Washington County, on charges of rape as an accomplice for his role in the arranged marriage of a 14-year-old girl to an older cousin in 2001. Closing arguments will be heard Friday.

In October 2005, when Jeffs was on the run from authorities, Fred Barlow wrote a letter in which he warmly referred to him as "Uncle Warren" and pledged "our desire to stand with you and the priesthood."
 
ABC4.com
Originally published September 20, 2007
 
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