Police chief’s letter to polygamist sect leader: I love you
The chief law enforcer in two Utah-Arizona border
towns is accused of misconduct for pledging allegiance to the leader of a
polygamous sect who was on the FBI’s most wanted list.
The chief law enforcer in two Utah-Arizona border towns is accused of misconduct for pledging allegiance to the leader of a polygamous sect who was on the FBI’s most wanted list.
“I love you and … know that you have the right to rule in all aspects of my life,” Fred Barlow wrote in an October 2005 letter to Warren Jeffs. “Without priesthood I am nothing.”
Barlow warmly addressed Jeffs as “Uncle Warren” and closed the letter by referring to himself as Jeffs’ “servant.”
Barlow is the police chief of a joint department serving Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. Jeffs is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which has 10,000 followers in those two towns.
The FLDS church practices polygamy and congregants revere Jeffs as a prophet and are taught to be obedient, including marrying at his behest.
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board is using the letter as evidence in one of three misconduct charges against Barlow, who could lose his certification. The Salt Lake Tribune obtained the letter and published it Friday.
Separately, the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council this week voted to conduct its own probe of the police force, whose officers are accused of being too loyal to Jeffs.
Not a bad example of the reasoning behind separation of church and state.
Posted: Sun - December 10, 2006 at 07:27 AM