An attorney for local law enforcement in two towns inhabited by polygamists along the Utah-Arizona border says the U.S. Justice Department plans to sue both communities, claiming religious discrimination.
Lawyer Blake Hamilton told The Associated Press on Thursday the Justice Department informed him of the pending civil rights lawsuit against the towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
The suit claims religious discrimination against non-sect members, Hamilton said, adding that he was told it would be filed Thursday in federal court.
Justice Department lawyers threatened a lawsuit in December when they met with Hamilton and another attorney representing Colorado City, Hamilton told the AP.
"DOJ asked us to dismantle a community," Hamilton said.
Most residents of the two towns are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, run by the group’s jailed leader Warren Jeffs. He is serving a life sentence in Texas after convictions on child sex and bigamy charges, but he is said to still maintain control of the communities.
"There’s nothing to support the allegation that non-FLDS members are treated differently," Hamilton said.
A telephone message left Thursday for a Justice Department spokeswoman wasn’t immediately returned.
The expected lawsuit comes after Legislatures in Utah and Arizona failed to pass bills to abolish the local police department for the communities.
The Arizona bill was being pushed by state Attorney General Tom Horne, who said Colorado City police officers who are FLDS members flout the law and instead pay allegiance first to Jeffs.
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A similar bill failed in the Utah Legislature. Colorado City officers also police neighboring Hildale.
The FLDS practices polygamy, a legacy of early Mormon church teachings that held plural marriage brought exaltation in heaven.
However, the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abandoned the practice in 1890 as a condition of Utah’s statehood and ex-communicates members who engage in the practice.
