Polygamy in Arizona

Polygamous Towns and FLDS Sued by Businessmen Over Alleged Illegal Arrests and Discrimination

By Ray Stern
Oct 13, 2016

Illegal arrests by a cult-run police force have spurred a new federal lawsuit against two polygamous towns on the Arizona-Utah border. Three businessmen who are former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints allege that officials in the rural towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, violated...
10 Arizona-Based Religions

By Matthew Hendley
Mar 8, 2016

With the recent debate over the possible expansion of "religious freedom" laws in Arizona, it's worth noting that the state has a great deal of religious . . . creativity.Check out 10 religions (or spiritual organizations, or sects, or in some cases, cults) that were born in Arizona:...
Phoenix Federal Court Jury Finds Northern Arizona Polygamist Towns Guilty of Discrimination

By Miriam Wasser
Mar 7, 2016

After four days of deliberation in a landmark federal trial, a jury has sided with the U.S. Department of Justice in its historic case against the leadership of two polygamist towns on the Arizona-Utah border by finding them guilty of religious discrimination against non-adherents of the prevailing fundamentalist faith.. The...
Phoenix Federal Court Verdict Could Cripple Abusive Polygamist Church Hierarchy on Arizona-Utah Border

By John Dougherty
Mar 7, 2016

The future of the long-tortured enclave of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah, hinges on a Phoenix federal court verdict in the U.S. Department of Justice’s historic lawsuit alleging that a fundamentalist polygamous sect controls local governments and the community's police force. A seven-week trial before U.S. District Court Judge...
Colorado City Sued by Justice Department; Child Rapist Warren Jeffs Still Running the Joint

By Matthew Hendley
Jun 21, 2012

Colorado City -- the town on the Utah/Arizona border that child rapist Warren Jeffs used to call home -- is being sued by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for religious and housing discrimination.The feds say the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Jeffs are still...
Persecution Complex

Prophet Warren Jeffs' conviction won't stop underage marriages among his followers, much less end polygamy

By John Dougherty
Oct 4, 2007

The recent conviction of Mormon polygamist leader Warren Steed Jeffs on two felony counts of rape as an accomplice is a huge public relations victory for Utah and Arizona authorities who have been under intense pressure to crack down on so-called "spiritual" marriages of underage girls. But it is doubtful...
Polygamy in Arizona: The Wages of Sin

Arizona polygamist leaders are using public funds to support religious schools and line their own pockets. The state's done nothing to stop them.

By John Dougherty
Apr 10, 2003

Deloy Bateman begins each school day long before dawn. He rousts five of his teenage children from bed at 2 a.m. An hour later, the clan arrives at the Colorado City public school. Soon, a few other kids join the group in Bateman's well-stocked science laboratory. After two hours of...
Bound by Fear: Polygamy in Arizona

For decades the state has let a feudal colony of fundamentalist Mormons force underage girls into illegal polygamous marriages

By John Dougherty
Mar 13, 2003

Sixteen-year-old Ruth Stubbs wanted to marry the boy down the street. So she revealed her desire to a religious leader, a man held in the highest esteem in her rural, isolated community straddling the Arizona-Utah border. On a December morning four years ago, Ruth sought the advice of the Prophet...