State revokes badges of polygamist officer, chief
 
By Nancy Perkins
Deseret Morning News
 
ST. GEORGE — In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the Utah Peace Officers Standards and Training Council voted to immediately revoke the certification of two police officers who are also polygamists.

Colorado City town marshal Sam Roundy and officer Vance Barlow will be notified by Utah POST of the council's decision, said Jim Eardley, a Washington County commissioner who also serves on the POST council.

"They were decertified as of today," Eardley said of the two long-time officers serving in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Washington County.

Utah POST held its monthly meeting here in conjunction with a three-day gathering of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association.

Roundy, who graduated in 1989 from the Arizona police academy and became Colorado City police chief in 1994, learned of the action through a phone call from a reporter. Roundy declined immediate comment, saying he wanted a couple of days to think things over before responding.

Arizona POST executive director Tom Hammarstrom said the two officers likely would face the same sanctions from Arizona.

"Utah's action, I'm certain, will initiate the process here," Hammarstrom said Tuesday. "The fact that Utah voted to revoke certification is an important element that we think has to have some impact (on our decision)."

Once Arizona begins the decertification process against Roundy and Barlow, the two men will have 30 days to request a hearing before an administrative law judge, he said.

"That can take a couple of months or so," Hammarstrom said. "But it seems to me, even if these two officers are decertified, the Colorado City police department will continue to exist and function with the other officers who are still certified."

Hildale Mayor David Zitting said the actions taken against Roundy and Barlow were regrettable.

"Sam and Vance have done an outstanding job as police officers," said Zitting after learning of POST's decision. "They are both excellent officers. It's sad that they (Utah) will find cause to take such excellent and dedicated people out of service."

The Colorado City police department is contracted each year to provide law enforcement services to Hildale in Washington County. Of the five full-time and two reserve officers currently working for the department, only Roundy and Barlow were targeted in Wednesday's POST action.

Most of the 7,000 residents of the two towns are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which preaches polygamy as a central tenet.

In a report compiled by Utah's former polygamy czar, Ron Barton, the Colorado City police department is referred to as "not your ordinary police department."

In a complex genealogical chart included in Barton's report, Colorado City officers are linked to each other through marriage or other family ties. According to the chart, Roundy and Barlow each have three wives.

E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Wednesday, March 23, 2005
 
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