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| Attorneys general: Mark Shurtleff of Utah and Terry Goddard of Arizona (not shown), the top law officers in their states,
have taken a different approach from that of Texas concerning keeping tabs on the FLDS church. Douglas C. Pizac/AP/FILE |
States divided on approach to polygamous sect
Law officers in Arizona and Utah say their method of confronting the FLDS must differ from that of Texas.
from the May 5, 2008 edition
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Correspondent Faye Bowers describes how the FDLS sect has adapted over time to achieve a key goal – secrecy – and how states where the group is based have responded in turn.
But after two years of acrimonious hearings and public recriminations, the charges were dropped and the families all went back to Short Creek.
"Then what happened was a mutual withdrawal," says Terry Goddard, Arizona's attorney general. "Any contacts with the outside world that had begun ... were cut off by the devout, and the state decided, once burned, we'll just stay away."
It wasn't until 2003 that Attorney General Goddard joined forces with Shurtleff, his counterpart in Utah, to hold a "summit" with the FLDS communities in the Arizona-Utah border region. During 50 years of government absence, the two say, the sect had become more autocratic, much larger, and wealthier.
Both say their state laws differ from those in Texas, and they note that Texas officials responded to a complaint on a single piece of property – the ranch – whereas the FLDS-dominated communities within their borders are actual towns. A big difference, Goddard says, is that Arizona officials, upon receiving a call claiming abuse, must identify the actual victim and could probably take only that one child, or perhaps all children in the one home, if there are signs of abuse. They wouldn't be able to enter all homes in the city because of one abuse complaint.
But Goddard and Shurtleff say their renewed focus on the FLDS is what drove Warren Jeffs, the now-imprisoned FLDS leader, to move his select followers to the Texas ranch. The states have also prosecuted Mr. Jeffs and eight other men in the group. They've decertified six police officers in the two towns who refused to report cases of abuse. They removed one justice of the peace.
Both states have also acted to remove the FLDS's major financial supports. Arizona took control of public funding for local schools, which it says the sect's leaders misused. Utah gave a private administrator charge over a communal FLDS trust previously controlled by Jeffs.
"The FLDS was relying on a lot of state funds for sustenance – welfare funds as well as money from the school district, which they dominated," says Ira Ellman, an expert on family law at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law in Tempe. "The state took over the school system and, in effect, took a lot of their income away."
Shurtleff and Goddard have since talked with Reid, who has assured them that the Justice Department will get in touch with them, along with the attorney general of Nevada, to begin a federal investigation into FLDS activities and to see how the US government can help.
[Editor's note: The original version misidentified Mark Shurtleff in a photo caption.]
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