4 Homes Raided in Polygamist Enclave

Law enforcement agents in Arizona investigating charges of underage marriage and sexual abuse raided four houses simultaneously in Colorado City, a polygamist enclave on the Arizona-Utah border.

Investigators, in the unusual show of force, seized boxes of records and personal belongings of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have been indicted on a variety of charges, including sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy. Eight men are expected to stand trial in July.

The synchronized raids by four teams of law officers came Thursday, in the wake of increased public attention to allegations of mistreatment of women and children by members of the religious sect.

A series of Times reports two weeks ago detailed more than 50 years of slow and ineffective response by law enforcement and other public safety agencies in the face of widespread reports of abuse.

The FLDS, an offshoot of Mormonism, claims 10,000 members and is led by Warren Jeffs, 50, a fugitive on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. He is accused of rape, arranging underage marriages and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

The Colorado City raids were led by the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, which sent in 16 deputies armed with search warrants naming an undisclosed number of targets.

Law enforcement officials Friday refused to detail what they sought in the warrants. They were believed to be seeking evidence, possibly including DNA samples, that could prove who had fathered children with underage mothers.

“The search warrants were part of an ongoing and continuing investigation of sexual abuse within the community,” said Trish Carter, spokeswoman for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office. “It was without any incident or resistance, and it was related to the eight sexual abuse indictments,” she said.

The raids were done at the same time to stop anyone from tipping others off to what was happening.

“It’s a very tightknit community, and we wanted to prevent that,” Carter said. She said the raid was unrelated to the nationwide search for Jeffs.

Colorado City and adjacent Hildale, Utah, are the largest polygamist communities in the U.S. There are other FLDS sect branches in South Dakota, Texas, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Mexico and Canada.

The sect’s core beliefs include polygamy. Men are taught they cannot enter the highest levels of heaven without at least three wives.

One result has been years of underage marriages, including girls as young as 12 and 13 being wed to much older men. The sect’s prophet, the fugitive Jeffs, is rumored to have as many as 72 wives.

The Times series earlier this month recounted allegations of widespread incest, sexual abuse of children and the systematic exile of hundreds of boys from the community. Local police were accused of operating as church enforcers rather than as administrators of the law.

After years of neglect, officials in Utah and Arizona have begun to crack down on the FLDS, seizing documents from their school, decertifying polygamous police officers and getting the FBI in on the search for Jeffs.

They also assigned Gary Engels, an investigator for the Mohave County attorney’s office, to Colorado City. He has become a permanent presence in the town. It was Engels who put together evidence leading to the eight indictments and who organized Thursday’s raid.

“I can’t really say anything about it yet,” Engels said after the raid.

But in interviews earlier this year, Engels acknowledged that the cases pending against the eight men could be an important test of whether justice finally had come to the desert enclave.

Whatever happens, Engels said, the eight indictments are only the beginning.

“I got eight more after that, and eight more after that,” he said. “I’m just getting started.”

The men facing trial all have multiple wives. Each has pleaded not guilty to the charges of sexual violations.

They include a former Colorado City police officer, Rodney Hans Holm, previously convicted in Utah and sentenced to jail for having sex with his then-16-year-old wife. He now faces three Arizona charges of sexual misconduct with a minor. Holm, 39, has three wives.

Randy Barlow, 33, was indicted on charges of sexual assault and sexual conduct with a minor.

The other six men face similar charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor -- in each case, stemming from allegations of sexual conduct with an underage wife.

David Romaine Bateman, 49, is alleged to have had sex with a 17-year-old girl; Terry Darger Barlow, 24, is accused of having sex with a girl, 15; Vergel Bryce Jessop, 46, was indicted on charges of having sex with a 17-year-old; Donald Robert Barlow, 50, is charged with having sex with a girl, 17.

Kelly Fischer, 48, and Dale Barlow, 48, were indicted on charges of sexual misconduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual misconduct with a minor. No details of their cases were available. All eight are out on bail.

Their trials have been postponed twice and are expected to be held in July.

Engels would not discuss why the raids were conducted so late in the legal process, except to say: “It follows with the investigation we are doing.”