Reid said, other criminal conduct occurs: ”welfare fraud, tax evasion, massive corruption and strong-arm tactics to maintain what they think is the status quo.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/24/polygamy.hearing/index.html?eref=rss_latest
As the case of a snatched Mormon girl from Salt Lake City unfolds, polygamists along the Arizona-Utah border face legal scrutiny
By John Dougherty
Published on March 20, 2003
The leader of a renegade branch of the Mormon Church, now 47, had sexual relations with an underage girl who bore him a daughter in July 2000, records obtained by New Times indicate.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2003-03-20/news/fornicating-for-god/
From Governor Janet Napolitano down, Arizona authorities have protected polygamous sexual predators with their indifference
By John Dougherty
Published on August 07, 2003
“This is laughable,” scoffs CindiNannetti, Maricopa County’s sex-crimes bureau chief, as she finishes reading a three-page report prepared by the Colorado City Police Department — an agency controlled by fundamentalist Mormon polygamists along the Arizona-Utah border
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2003-08-07/news/eyes-wide-shut/
Arizona faces a “Waco-level” threat from Mormon fundamentalists.
By John Dougherty
Published on October 03, 2002
Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano’s office is covering up information documenting extensive and ongoing criminal activity including rape, incest, assault, kidnapping, forced marriages of underage girls, weapons violations and welfare fraud that is rampant in the remote polygamous community of Colorado City, state records obtained by New Times reveal.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2002-10-03/news/cover-up-arizona-attorney-general-internal-memo/
My own father, in 1974, at age 36, took as a plural wife a girl 16 years of age. It is laughable to see the impotence of state and local government when it comes to dealing with this particularly insidious form of child abuse.
Its horrifying. Girls married off to men when they hit puberty. Boys taught to be sexual predators
While these small towns are charming, there is a darker side to aspects of fundamentalist sects that have their roots in the Church of Latter-Day Saints.
Anti-polygamy activists, who gathered here Saturday for an unprecedented meeting, charge the state has not done enough to stamp out “Utah’s dirty little secret.” They say the inaction is allowing child abuse, welfare fraud and sexual assault to continue unchecked in polygamous communities.
Polygamy is a risk factor for incest. This case report of incest and polygamy portrays the dynamics that dominated this family’s identity. The father indoctrinated and groomed his biological daughter and stepdaughter for sexual gratification in a cult-like atmosphere, and secretly married both of them. He justified his acts to the family members under the guise of religion, but he later denied allegations of polygamy and sexual contact with his daughters when confronted by the authorities. Ultimately, his parental rights were terminated in family court. The authors interviewed the primary victim and reviewed extensive evidence, including videotapes of the victims talking with detectives and also privately amongst each other. Videotape dialogue excerpts capture how these young girls individually coped with the sexual abuse and responded to becoming child wives in a polygamous family. Criminal charges ultimately were not pursued because the key witness refused to testify against her biological father.
http://www.astm.org/JOURNALS/FORENSIC/PAGES/JFS2002044_475.htm
