FLDS police cadets in the state's sights
 POST is wary due to officers' alleged loyalties to Jeffs
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
SANDY — When two cadets from the polygamous border town of Hildale get close to graduating from the police academy, Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training director Rich Townsend will sit them down for a chat.

"I'll be admonishing them to take very seriously the matters at hand," Townsend told the Deseret Morning News on Tuesday. "We sincerely hope the police officers down there understand the critical nature of following the constitutions of the United States and this state."

The police officers from the Fundamentalist LDS enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., continue to face scrutiny over their loyalties to FLDS leader Warren Jeffs.

Arizona POST officials will decide today whether to take the badges of Hildale/Colorado City Town Marshal Fred Barlow and his deputy, Preston Barlow. They are accused of refusing to answer investigators' questions. Fred Barlow also is accused of seeking direction from Jeffs when Jeffs was a fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

"Dear Uncle Warren," Barlow wrote in a letter to Jeffs that fell into the hands of Arizona authorities. In the letter, the marshal pledged the loyalty of all of his officers.

"I love you and acknowledge you as my priesthood head," he wrote. "And I know that you have the right to rule in all aspects of my live (sic). I yearn to hear from you."

The letter was signed, "Your servant, Fred J. Barlow Jeffs."

In July, an administrative law judge in Phoenix held hearings on the allegations. An 80-page decision concluded the marshals refused to answer repeated questions from investigators and attorneys. They were obstinate when responding to calls about disappearing property from Hildale and Colorado City, shortly after the FLDS Church's financial arm, the United Effort Plan Trust, was taken over by the courts.

The judge said the communities were in turmoil, and with the criminal charges against Jeffs, it must have seemed that the whole world was against them.

"To cooperate fully with outside agencies would destroy the trust of the community they had sworn to protect," Judge Diane Mihalsky wrote. "To lie or provide misinformation to outside agencies would jeopardize their peace officer certifications and continued qualifications to protect their community as peace officers, as well as offending their deeply held core values."

The Utah POST Council has opted to wait until its counterpart in Arizona hands out discipline today. But because the marshals are cross-deputized across the border, any decision made in one state will be reflected in the other.

"We will be coming before the POST Council in an upcoming meeting," Utah POST legal counsel Rick Wyss said Tuesday.

Utah POST officials already have decertified several Hildale/Colorado City town marshals in their investigations into the officers' allegiance. Townsend said he was unaware if any more would be disciplined.

Washington County sheriff's deputies have said they have seen more cooperation recently from the FLDS police officers, suggesting that Jeffs was losing his grip on them. An attorney for some of the officers told the Deseret Morning News in June that a "separation" may be taking place between FLDS leadership and the police force.

Jeffs, 51, is on trial in St. George's 5th District Court on charges of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. He is accused of performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published September 19, 2007
 
Back