Prosecutor champions 'the people' against a giant foe
 
MOHAVE COUNTY NEWS RELEASE
(928) 753-0729
 
KINGMAN - Like David vs. Goliath, Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith has taken good aim at bringing down Warren Jeffs and others for abuse of underage girls in Colorado City.

"We are very pleased that Jeffs (prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is presently in custody in Utah and beginning his rendezvous with justice," Smith said Friday, Sept. 15. "I was recently contacted by a law firm out of Phoenix which will likely represent him when he gets to Mohave County."

Smith said his primary focus at this time is the issue of underage "marriages" in the Colorado City area. This is a big job for his small department, he said.

"My chief deputy is also working hard on strategy for these cases," he said. "Our latest attorney hire is doing a lot of legal research for us and, although we are prosecuting other defendants from Colorado City, we are preparing for Mr. Jeffs. He has an attorney out of Las Vegas representing him in Utah and, with this large firm out of Phoenix preparing to represent him here, we expect to be papered to death. They will be able to bring tremendous resources against our rural county, placing an incredible burden on our office to keep up with them."

Smith is not sure the public understands exactly what is at stake with these cases.

"I think there are many people out there who are closely following these cases," he said, "as there has been a lot of coverage nationwide. They have an idea of what the issues are, but there are still some misconceptions and some people are in complete error about what is on trial here.

"Some people believe this is all about polygamy," he said. "Although polygamy is against the Arizona Constitution, it is not against the law; it's not a crime to practice polygamy - not a misdemeanor; not a felony.

"Certainly, polygamy is a big factor," Smith said, "but the eight men who have been charged in these cases are already legally married to one wife each, recognized by law, and each has taken what they call a 'spiritual' or 'religious bride,' not recognized by law, who are, on occasion, girls under the age of 18. An adult who has sex with someone under 18 is a lawbreaker. These are not charges against a religion; they are sex crime charges."

Smith admits it has been difficult to bring these charges and prove them in court.

"With a few of our cases, we have victims and witnesses who can help," he said, "but the majority of these cases do not have cooperative witnesses. We prove our cases with birth and marriage certificates. A child is born and the mother and father's names are on the birth certificate as well as residency in Colorado City. Marriage certificates show the parents' ages. We do the math. If the father is older and the 'bride' is found to be under 18 at the time of either the birth or conception of the child, we can prove our case."

Smith said he didn't know if the Colorado City cases will have a long-term impact on the residents.

"I don't know if these cases will have a direct effect on the people there," he said. "I would hope the men will think before they take underage brides and will think twice before having sexual relations with one. It would make sense that they won't want to be convicted of sex crimes; have to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives; do jail time; and be put on supervised probation which is quite an invasion into their lifestyles. Hopefully there will be some deterrent factor there.

"We have had warrants out for Warren Jeffs which have caused him to be on the run all this time," he said. "He hasn't been able to have the freedom to go to Colorado City and arrange and perform these marriages. He has had to do everything on the sly and that has certainly impacted the situation. The Fundamentalists' activities are tied to what the prophet orders. Whatever the prophet tells them to do, they will do. In this case the prophet is Warren Jeffs. If another prophet tells them to wait until the girls are 18, that's what they will do and that would solve a lot of their problems."

The Colorado City situation has added a lot of expense for Mohave County at a time of fiscal restraint. Action by the Arizona Legislature forced Mohave County to lower its property tax rate this year even though the county has kept its tax rate well under the maximum allowed for several years and much lower than many other counties in this state. The state legislators' act impacts county revenues and services and all Mohave County departments share the belt tightening.

"Yes, our department has been hit financially by the Colorado City cases," Smith said, "but we will fight our cases for the people no matter what it takes. The county put a building up there and funded our investigator, Gary Engels. That includes vehicles, utilities, maintenance, cell phones and all the other costs of following up on leads within a very uncooperative community. Preparing cases for court, going to the Grand Jury, filing motions, dealing with various defense attorneys, gathering resources, an incredible amount of man hours. - these are only part of the costs and this is a situation that is not going to be short term. Even if things change within the group, we will be monitoring the situation for a long time.

"And every one of these cases looks like they will go to trial," he said. "None of these men are taking plea agreements. The county has to fund jury trials and juror costs. There are a lot of hidden costs with the court personnel needed for these cases - and the cost of Warren Jeffs' process through our justice system is going to be off the charts."

With all that, Smith is still very optimistic.

"Since we have had some success already," Smith said, "and based on talking to jurors who were on the not-guilty verdict case we had, I believe we are going to continue to have a lot of success in prosecuting these men."

Some state officials tried to get funds to assist Mohave County's legal efforts in Colorado City, but weren't successful, Smith said. He hopes the state will offer more support this year.

"I think if would be helpful if the state committed more resources up there," he said. "I understand they have some issues with resources like we do here in Mohave County. But the attorney general tried to get money to station a deputy who would work for the Mohave County Sheriff's Office up there. And the funding didn't pan out. I would like to see a little bit more state money and resources sent to Mohave County to deal with these problems. This Colorado City situation is a monster problem for our small but growing rural department to deal with. We need help. The area is so huge and Sheriff Tom Sheahan has limited resources in how many deputies are available with so many different areas to cover up there. Tom helps us all he can, but he has budget constraints as well. Gary Engels is my office's lone investigator - and he's doing a bang-up job.

"We have placed Mohave County's resources on the front lines and are pushing our fiscal abilities in this situation, so we're asking the state and the feds for help," he said. "U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada just asked the Justice Department to help deal with the Jeffs situation. He's suggested there may be possible federal violations of moving minors over state lines for illicit purposes. There is uniform consensus in this country that what's going on up there is wrong."

Colorado City is not the only situation that is impacting Smith's department.

"The incredible growth in Mohave County's population has brought a lot of business opportunities and good things to our residents," he said, "but it has also increased crime and, therefore, caseload for our justice system. The number of murder suspects waiting to go through the process is incredible. We had a stretch not too long ago where we had four murders in about eight weeks. This impacts the Sheriff's Office, the Public Defender's Office, Courts, Probation, prosecutors and the jail."

Smith has 21 attorneys, including himself, who do criminal prosecutions and five civil deputies.

"That's a total of 26 attorneys with two investigators and 33 support staff members including legal secretaries," he said. "With our population growth and increased caseload, we could use another five or six attorneys. We could use one or two attorneys doing misdemeanors, which has a crushing caseload. Felony drug cases could use another attorney with a couple others handling other felonies. We certainly need another person doing juvenile cases. I believe in frontloading the system. We need to do more involving children, especially preventative actions. To me, that is the key. The key to fighting the drug problem is more aggressive education targeting youth.

"You're not going to change a lot of adults' behavior," he said. "It's too late for most of them. There are some individual successes there, but your chances are pretty slim. Children, however, can be helped. I'm all for anything that can positively impact children.

"Boys want to be heroes and little girls dream of being princesses," Smith said. "It would help them realize their dreams to have reality paraded into their classrooms. I'd like to see methamphetamine addicts work off some of their sentenced community services by going into classrooms and showing photos of the way they looked before they became drug users. It would be quite a wakeup call for young people to see the pictures of normal looking people held by those gaunt, toothless, physically destroyed victims of their own bad choices. The face of methamphetamine is very frightening."

Like anything else, until people are directly impacted, they don't think about the justice system, Smith said. "But times are changing and today I really don't know any adult who has never been the victim of a crime. And it's not getting any better. Our residents need to look at what we all do and realize that law enforcement and the justice system represents 'the people,' and really needs the people's support."

When it comes to Mohave County's administration and other elected officials, Smith said he has had outstanding support.

"The Board of Supervisors has been very supportive," he said. "So has the county manager and finance department. We asked for an investigator for Colorado City and without hesitation we received that. We asked that his position become permanent and that happened. We received a permanent building and now have a victim advocate up there. Like all the other county departments, we have shown positive results and that proves the taxpayer is getting his money's worth. This county has been both supportive and fiscally responsible and we appreciate that.

"I want the public to have confidence that if something happens to them or their loved ones that they will be treated fairly and with respect by the County Attorney's Office," Smith said. "We will try to do justice for them in every case, treat people in a fair manner at all times and do the best we can to get the best results. We are committed to providing services to victims to help them through the process and we will take the time to explain things along the way. Justice, however, is not just winning. Our job is to do what is right."

And in the Colorado City situation, right makes might in bringing down the Goliath of Warren Jeffs and other abusers of underage girls
 
co.mohave.az.us
Originally published Friday, September 15, 2006
 
Back