BishopAccountability.org
	Consistent Enforcement Key The Spectrum [Utah] June 5, 2006 http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20060605/OPINION01/606050332/1014 The recent arrest of acting Colorado City mayor, Terrill Johnson, 57, charged with eight counts of false evidences of title and registration adds to the list of unlawful dissidence in the bi-state polygamous communities of Utah and Arizona. Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints members answered a call from the pulpit in August 2000 by Warren Jeffs, a counselor in the first presidency of the church at the time, to withdraw from public schools after the Washington County School Board voted to close Phelps Elementary because of lack of enrollment. Investors leased the school with an option to buy at the end of 10 years at the sale price of $1 million and created the seventh private school within the Colorado City Unified School District boundaries. Since then, the state of Arizona has taken over the school district after teachers went months without pay, and allegations of financial mismanagement surfaced. Police raided district offices and seized computers, records and files. A grand-jury investigation revealed last month that subpoenas on four FLDS-linked companies in Utah - Valley Transportation, Valley Truss, Steeds Inc. and the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the FLDS Church - and the church's former lawyer were ordered to supply records pertaining to Jeffrey P. Jessop, the former financial director of the school district. Allegations about child-bride marriages, sexual abuse of minors and financial mismanagement in the Unified Effort Plan Trust, which is now in the hands of a court-appointed fiduciary, has sent Jeffs, the current FLDS President and fugitive on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, into hiding. While there are those who allege the heavy hand of law enforcement is merely religious prosecution, the trail of arrests and investigations are simply effective law enforcement at work. Anyone else accused of committing like crimes would be prosecuted in the same manner. Praises are in order for the careful judgment exercised by the attorneys general of Utah and Arizona, and the law enforcement agencies of both jurisdictions. Enforcing laws we are all subject to in the closed religious communities has posed challenges because some faithful FLDS followers do not recognize the rights and duties of citizenship in democracies the way mainstream Americans do. Their ambivalent attitude toward recognizing government authority to regulate FLDS affairs, based on a questionable interpretation of Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, is contrary to the spirit of the law which encourages the pursuit of religious belief but does not afford immunity from the consequences of breaking the law. Consistency in enforcement of the laws is the key. Keep up the good work.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.