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	Texas Attorney General Wants Federal Help to Fight Polygamy By Suzanne Struglinski The Dallas Morning News July 24, 2008 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/072408dnnatpolygamyhelp.88533e87.html WASHINGTON — State authorities need federal help in fighting polygamy, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told a Senate panel Thursday, as members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints fought to get their opinions heard. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining state and federal coordination in pursuing crimes associated with polygamy, Mr. Abbott said that the church members’ mobility and size makes it difficult to investigate and press charges. "This group moves seamlessly from state to state, location to location and has the infrastructure necessary to thwart law enforcement," Mr. Abbott said. "Even Warren Jeffs, who has achieved international notoriety, managed to hide from authorities for over a year — and he was on the FBI’s most wanted list." On Tuesday, Mr. Abbott announced charges against Mr. Jeffs, the sect’s incarcerated leader, and five other church members, including felony sexual assault of a child. None of the others have been arrested or public identified yet. Mr. Abbott said the church is "difficult to penetrate," and help from federal authorities would provide more tools to investigate polygamists and stop them from moving. He said that hypothetically, that if the federal government had been examining the FLDS church’s financial records, the group might not have had the resources to come into Texas after it was thrown out of Utah and Arizona. He noted that the group moves to sparsely populated areas where they can often infiltrate local law enforcement. "Assistance and cooperation from federal officials can help ensure these suspects stand trial for the crimes with which they are charged," Mr. Abbott said. "It is critical that federal authorities focus on the FLDS, and devote the resources necessary to prosecute criminal wrongdoing that is uncovered –whether the evidence leads to Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Utah or somewhere else." The hearing stemmed from a request by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has been pushing the federal government to take a closer look at polygamy. Mr. Reid, who is a member of the mainstream Mormon church, introduced legislation this week that would create a task force examining polygamy. He compared polygamist communities to "organized crime." "I am not saying that they are the same thing as the crime syndicates that used to run Las Vegas," said Mr. Reid, a former head of the Nevada Gaming Commission. " But they engage in an ongoing pattern of serious crimes that we must not ignore." Jim Bradshaw, an FLDS attorney, countered that if the federal government wanted to create a task force looking at Catholics or any other religion; "people would go crazy." Church members complained that they were not invited to testify, and they handed out literature opposing Mr. Reid’s bill. "To say that this group of people commits crimes, that’s un-American," Mr. Bradshaw said. "They are targeted because of what they believe." Mr. Abbott called the religion discrimination argument a "smokescreen." "Sexual assault of a child is nothing that is cloaked with religious protection anywhere," Mr. Abbott said. Brett Tolman, a U.S. attorney in Utah, cautioned against a federal task force, likening it to telling the mob the government is about to start investigating them. He said that since the call went out for more federal involvement in FLDS issues, members have been less willing to cooperate with investigations. He said state and federal officials should seek to increase their communication and information-sharing. Mr. Tolman said he would have liked to see some FLDS member invited to testify as there are some who do not marry underage girls or otherwise break the law.
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