Colorado City runaway returned home
 DCFS: not enough reason to withold custody
 
By Jane Zhang
jzhang@thespectrum.com
 
ST. GEORGE -- A Colorado City girl who ran away to St. George in the aftermath of a split in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was returned home last week after two weeks in Utah and Arizona state custody.

The 17-year-old girl, who left in a Chevy truck with a man on Jan. 17, was returned home on Jan. 30 after 5th District Court Judge James L. Shumate dismissed a protective order she obtained against her father. The St. George court, Shumate said, didn't have jurisdiction over an Arizona case.

The Arizona Child Protective Services and Utah State Division of Child and Family Services, both of which sent representatives to Shumate's court, said they found no abuses at the girl's home. The Utah DCFS, after keeping the girl as a possible runaway for 10 days at the Youth Crisis Center at the Youth Corrections Facility, turned her over to Arizona CPS on Jan. 27.

"Living in a polygamist home -- by that reason is not enough to remove a child," said Carol Sisco, spokeswoman for Utah DCFS. "That doesn't constitute abuse or neglect."

The return of the girl, in contrast with two Colorado City runaways still in Arizona state protective custody, has angered anti-polygamy activists and satisfied her family.

The case shows how Arizona and Utah's child protective services keep failing to protect children running away from abuses in the biggest polygamist enclave in the United States, said Flora Jessop, an anti-polygamy activist in Phoenix who ran away from Colorado City 17 years ago. With about 10,000 members, the FLDS church controls most of the land and property in the border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz.

"The kids are running from the predators of their own homes," she said. "They are being sent back to abuse. There's nothing in religious freedom, no matter how hard they tried to twist that."

Both states, she said, ignored the girl's allegations against her father. According to court papers, the girl said her father yelled at her, beat her with a willow branch and caused a bump to form on her head and a welt on her back.

"He then grabbed me and dragged me down the stairs and I hurt my head on the wall," she said. "I am really afraid of him."

Liz Barker, communications director for the Arizona CPS, would not respond to questions about the case's details. But she said the department chose to return the child with her safety in mind. The department, she said, found the girl wasn't sexually abused or being forced into a marriage.

The girl's allegations were not true, her father said. While he didn't talk to her much, he said his daughter was happy to be home. She was doing well physically but struggling emotionally, he said. The Arizona CPS is monitoring the situation and counseling her.

The state of Utah, he said, was the one in the wrong. After a 911 call looking for his daughter routed to the St. George Police Department dispatch on Jan. 17, the Utah Attorney General's Office acted swiftly to put the girl into state custody. He had tried to contact the girl but to no avail.

"They didn't even contact me once," he said. "They kidnapped my daughter and abused my parental right."

Sisco said the state has followed the right procedure in handling the case. DCFS officials first investigated her allegations and checked with their counterparts in Mohave County. Had the girl been abused or neglected, she said, she wouldn't have been sent home.

But Jessop said the states are not doing enough. Without a safe route for girls to leave Colorado City and Hildale, activists and media exposure provide the only way of protection.

Since driving two 16-year-old girls from Colorado City to Arizona on Jan. 11, she has appeared in various television reports with them. She dismissed allegations that she was abusing the girls for media exposure. Because of the exposure, she said, the state hasn't returned Fawn Broadbent and Fawn Holm to Colorado City.

On Tuesday, 27 Arizona state legislators called on Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard to ensure the safety of young people in Colorado City and prosecute criminal activities, such as bigamy, rape and incest. Goddard responded by saying, "It's a No. 1 priority for this office."

In Utah, Attorney General Shurtleff had said he will "do anything within (his) power" to ensure that no runaways are returned to their families against their will. He said he was concerned about the civil rights of both women and men in the twin towns.

Law-enforcement officers from both states were set on edge after Jan. 10, when the FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs expelled 20 men, including Colorado City's mayor of 19 years, Dan Barlow, who immediately resigned. But no violence has since erupted.

Several runaways from Colorado City returned to their home after staying for a day or two in St. George, Jessop said. After meeting with Goddard for two hours on Friday, she said she hoped the states will stop sending runaways back.

"Seventeen years of watching these kids turned back," she said. "It's got to stop. It's got to stop."

But for the girl's father, it was relief to have his daughter home.

"I'm glad that it's all over with," he said.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Saturday, February 7, 2004
 
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