Justice Department sues fundamentalist Mormon sect for discrimination

The US Justice Department alleges that the?Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), which?controls most of the law enforcement and other government services in two adjacent communities, discriminates against those who are not members of the polygamous?sect.

By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / June 22, 2012

Hildale, Utah sits at the base of red rock cliff mountains with its sister city, Colorado City, Ariz. in the foreground. Most residents are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) run by the group?s jailed leader Warren Jeffs. The US Justice Department is suing both communities, claiming religious discrimination.

Douglas C. Pizac/AP

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The US Justice Department has filed suit against the adjoining towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, communities populated largely by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS).?

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The FLDS, which broke away from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church), and actively practices polygamy, controls most of the law enforcement and other government services in those two communities in the Southwest. It is charged with discriminating against those who are not members of the FLDS.

The Justice Department complaint alleges that the cities? joint police department ?routinely uses its enforcement authority to enforce the edicts and will of the FLDS; fails to protect non-FLDS individuals from victimization by FLDS individuals; refuses to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies? investigations of FLDS individuals; selectively enforces laws against non-FLDS; and uses its authority to facilitate unlawful evictions of non-FLDS, among other unlawful conduct,? according to a statement issued late Thursday.?

?The complaint also alleges that Colorado City, Hildale, Twin City Water Authority and Twin City Power have denied or unreasonably delayed providing water and electric service to non-FLDS residents, and that the municipalities refuse to issue building permits and prevent individuals from constructing or occupying existing housing because of the individuals? religious affiliation,? according to the Justice Department statement.

The Mormon Church (LDS) officially abandoned polygamy (or the taking of ?plural wives?) more than a century ago as a condition for Utah being granted statehood. But break-away groups numbering an estimated 30,000-50,000 individuals, most of them in Utah and other parts of the Southwest, have continued the practice.

?The Mormon Church excommunicates members who are publicly revealed as polygamists,? writes Debra Weyermann in a lengthy cover story in the current issue of High Country News magazine. ?But it has refused to condemn the FLDS, even though its spokesmen have often been asked to do so.?

Ms. Weyermann, a former reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, is the author of ?Answer Them Nothing: Bringing Down the Polygamous Empire of Warren Jeffs,? a book about the FLDS.

FLDS leader Jeffs is currently serving a life sentence in Texas for two counts of sexual assault of a child ? girls ages 15 and 12 who were taken as his ?brides? in a ?spiritual marriage.?

Still, Jeffs (who, before his capture, was on the FBI's list of "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives") is widely believed to direct FLDS activities in Colorado City, Hildale, and elsewhere from his prison cell, including the assignment of wives.

"The cities' governments, including the Marshal's Office, have been deployed to carry out the will and dictates of FLDS leaders, particularly Warren Jeffs and the officials to whom he delegates authority," the Justice Department lawsuit states.

In 2008, 465 children were removed from the FLDS?Yearning for Zion ranch?near?Eldorado, Texas, resulting in the biggest child custody case in?US?history. Authorities determined that at least several dozen underage girls already had children, were pregnant, or both. Following legal challenges and a period of foster care while child protection authorities investigated the cases, most of the children were returned to their families.

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