by Bob Walsh
Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah are right across the border from each other. The small cities are mostly inhabited by fundamentalist Mormons who still practice polygamy in violation of law in both Utah and Arizona.
It has been alleged that, if you live there and you are not a member in good standing of the FLDS church AND currently in the good graces of the leadership of that church various city services, like police protection, are not available to you. A federal judge is about to have a say.
Judge H. Russel Holland will, on Monday, make a ruling that will almost certainly make some changes, and maybe HUGE changes, in how these cities operate their local government.
Four years ago a complaint was filed asserting that Short Creek (the collective name for these two towns) essentially takes its marching orders from the FLDS leadership.
About seven months ago a jury agreed with the assertion that if you were on the outs with the church bad things happened to you. Some of these bad things were denial of city services. One of the options that the judge is considering is disbanding the Marshal’s Office that provides police services, which would turn that duty back over to the county governments on their respective sides of the state line.
The state of Arizona is considering decertifying the Marshal’s office in Colorado City.
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