Something is finally being done about Colorado City.
Recent news that the Mohave County supervisors approved funding for a building that will be jointly used by various county and state agencies represents some of the best news in a long time about the northern Mohave County community.
All three supervisors deserve credit for voting for this funding as does state Sen.Linda Binder, who has been on top of this issue for some time. Although this issue is probably one of the few things I agree with the Lake Havasu legislator about, the soon-to-be-departing state senator deserves credit for keeping this issue on her agenda.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has also been very active lately in pressing this issue legally.
His recent remarks that he intends to bring charges against FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs represent a positive sign that something is being done about the problem.
For those who don't know – and it's hard to imagine any upstanding citizen not knowing – the Colorado City area is a polygamous community known for pressing young women, i.e.early-teen girls, into pre-arranged marriages against their will.
The merits or demerits of polygamy can and will be debated well into the future, as the recent Supreme Court decision approving another court's striking down of state anti-sodomy laws could very well bring this issue to the forefront.
As Justice Antonin Scalia noted is his dissent on that decision, the court's rationale logically could lead the court to strike down state anti-polygamy laws.
At least, that is, if the court retains the same logic it used in the anti-sodomy law case.
Be that as it may, there is nowhere in civilized American society today for a religious group that forces underage teenaged girls into marriages against their will.
There are other problems associated with the lifestyle of this Mormon offshoot group, and those will be brought to light in the future as well.
Flora Jessop escaped from the Colorado City area some years ago, and she had quite a story to tell.
Some of it has been profiled on the pages of the Miner and other newspapers, and I'm sure more will be forthcoming.
Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan says he is keeping on top of the issues with daily contacts made to the offices of the governor and attorney general.
This is a good thing.
The sheriff has dispatched deputies to the area on a rotational basis for several weeks following the excommunication of 21 men from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
During last year's election, independent gubernatorial candidate Richard Mahoney made Colorado City's polygamy and its associated issues a major part of his campaign.
Mahoney was reviled in the major media for this as he targeted Republican candidate Matt Salmon for what he likely wouldn't do as governor because of his Mormon religion, and and Democrat Janet Napolitano for what she didn't do as attorney general.
I think Mahoney was hurt because he was telling the truth.
Sometimes the truth hurts.
I have observed that the American public generally doesn't like its political candidates telling the cold, hard truth.
No matter what we say, most of us want to hear smooth-sounding platitudes from our candidates.
Sometimes one has to "go negative" in order to get the truth out.
I will say this, however. There is no doubt Mahoney's campaign put the Colorado City issue on the front burner like no political candidate or politician since former Arizona Gov. Howard Pyle in the 1950s.
Pyle had numerous polygamous men from Short Creek arrested in "Operation Seagull" and transported to Kingman, according to Utah historian Will Bagley. The public pressure brought to bear against Pyle was great, however, and the polygamous men were later returned to their Arizona Strip homes.
I remember reading about Pyle's aspirations for national office when I was looking through some back issues of the Wickenburg Sun a few years ago, when I was employed as a reporter in that northwest Maricopa County community.
Pyle's bold move likely cost him any chance he had to run for president.
Where Pyle failed, maybe Mahoney and others will succeed.
We can only hope this is the case.
The lives of many young women, young men and their children are at stake.
Caleb Soptelean is the Miner's law enforcement reporter.
https://kdminer.com/news/2004/feb/06/calebs-corner-colorado-citybrnow-getting-attentio/
https://kdminer.com/news/2004/feb/06/calebs-corner-colorado-citybrnow-getting-attentio/
