SALT LAKE CITY — In a letter, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes says he backs efforts to shut down the police force in the polygamous border towns of Hildale and Colorado City.
The letter, filed in a federal court in Phoenix, is in support of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s request to disband the Colorado City Town Marshal’s Office. In his letter, obtained by FOX 13, Reyes cites “a long history of systemic discrimination against non-FLDS citizens.”
He closes the letter by stating that “disbandment is the only remedy.”
Read the letter from Reyes on the Colorado City Town Marshal’s Office here:
The police officers in Hildale and Colorado City have been under scrutiny for years over their loyalties to Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs, who is in prison for sex crimes related to underage marriages.
FOX 13 reported in June that a former marshal in the office told authorities he secretly taped conversations with the FBI and gave them to Jeffs. He also knew a fellow officer had married an underage girl.
The Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) — which certifies and disciplines officers — confirmed its own investigation into the town marshal’s office after FOX 13 reported the Justice Department and Hildale had sued the agency for access to its files. POST reluctantly handed them over after a federal judge ordered them to.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is seeking to dismantle the police force and have protection provided by Washington and Mohave County. The town of Hildale is fighting those efforts.
Photo Gallery: Warren Jeffs and his wives
