Polygamist Lawman Wins Decertification Fight
 
The Associated Press
 
A deputy marshal from the polygamist enclave of Colorado City near the Utah-Arizona border has won a five-year legal battle with state authorities who tried to revoke his accreditation as a lawman because he has three wives.

The 11-member Arizona Law Enforcement Officer Advisory council voted Thursday without debate to accept a hearing officer's recommendation that charges for decertification of Sam Barlow be dismissed.

"He's pretty happy, but he would have liked the case to go to the Supreme Court," Barlow's attorney Marc Cavness said.

Barlow, the father of 36 children and member of a fundamentalist sect, did not respond to a request for comment placed to the marshal's office. The former Mohave County deputy sheriff has been on administrative leave as a deputy town marshal in Colorado City on the Utah line.

"I personally had a sigh of a relief," said police chief Jedediah Barlow, who is Sam Barlow's nephew. "I don't believe they should single any officer out and persecute him for his religious beliefs."

Barlow is married to his first wife, Ina, legally, but also has marriages to wives Louella and Diana through the church. He was accused in 1987 by the council -- the quasi-governmental agency which certifies law officers -- of violating the Arizona Constitution's prohibition of polygamy.

He appeared in front of Harold Merkow, an ALEOAC hearing officer, in March after battling in the state and federal courts to strike down the council's charges on the grounds they violated his constitutional freedom to practice religion.

Merkow said in a 14-page recommendation that Barlow's polygamy has nothing to do with the way he does his job.

The recommendation cited a 1990 Arizona Court of Appeals ruling in Barlow's case which said Barlow could be decertified only if his polygamy jeopardizes public trust in law enforcement.

"There has never been . . . any determination that polygamy is a practice inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state," Merkow wrote. ". . . Barlow's violation of the Constitution and his oath due to his religious beliefs does not violate the public trust."

Barlow argued that the council was using him as a test case and if he was decertified, other Colorado City officials who practice polygamy would be next and eventually close-knit town would be run by outsiders.
 
The Associated Press
Originally published May 16, 1992
 
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