Jury finds polygamous towns in Arizona, Utah discriminate against outsiders

A federal jury in Phoenix decided on Monday that the towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, violated the constitutional rights of residents who do not belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Most of the people who live in Colorado City and Hildale are part of the polygamist sect, and prosecutors said officials chose people for government jobs based on directives from the church; police officers turned a blind eye to illegal marriages between minor girls and adult men; and police lied about the whereabouts of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs when he was a fugitive facing charges he raped an underage girl he had married, The Associated Press reports. One woman who is not a FLDS member testified that she was denied a water connection, and for six years had to carry water to her home and take away sewage. Another man left the church, and the police allegedly ignored hundreds of complaints about vandalism at his house.

A judge has not yet decided what penalties the towns will face. Lawyers for Colorado City and Hildale say the government prosecuted the case because of what the FLDS believes, AP reports, and said other religions could be next. The FLDS is facing another legal battle, with the U.S. Labor Department alleging that FLDS children are being taken out of school to work harvesting pecans.

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