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Feds Appoint Prosecutor To Focus On Polygamy Issues

By Howard M. Friedman

Today's Salt Lake Tribune reports that the U.S. Justice Department has appointed a senior, career prosecutor to work with Utah, Arizona and Nevada to combat polygamy related crimes. This disclosure came in letters that Nevada Sen. Harry Reid sent this week to the attorneys general of Utah and Arizona. Today's Toronto Globe and Mail says that the U.S. investigation may extend to combating the so-called "polygamy underground railway" across the Canada-U.S. border through which young women are sent to marry older men. Women are sent between FLDS communities in British Columbia, Utah and Arizona. This action by the Justice Department may be the first step toward appointing a special task force. Last week, the Deseret News reported that Sen. Reid had long been pushing for the Justice Department to take action. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, while welcoming federal involvement, took issue with Reid's criticism of Utah's law enforcement. Shurtleff said Utah has done much to combat polygamy.

Meanwhile yesterday in St. George, Utah, some 200 people attended the annual conference presented by the Utah-Arizona Safety Net Committee to hear presentations by members of polygamous communities, news media, social service providers and law enforcement. Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune quotes conference participant Anne Wilde from the "fundamentalist Mormon" advocacy group, Principle Voices, who said that fundamentalist Mormons represent a wide diversity of beliefs, and should not all be lumped together with the FLDS.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on May 09, 2008 (boomark / email).