Power battle prompts inquiry into 2-state polygamist group

By Mark Thiessen
The Associated Press

	DOUGLAS C. PIZAC / AP Ross Chatwin, at a Friday news conference, said polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs "has to be stopped before he ruins all of us."
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COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — A power struggle has emerged in a small, tightlipped community known for polygamy, with a number of men being kicked out of the church-owned town and their wives and children being "reassigned" against their will to other men.

Authorities in Arizona and Utah now are stepping up their years-long investigation into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the family "reassignments" sparking concerns of forced marriage of underage girls.

In a rare show of defiance in the typically secretive community, one man who was ordered to leave is refusing to do so, and is sharing information with authorities about church leader Warren Jeffs.

Ross Chatwin, 35, held a news conference Friday at his home in Colorado City. He said he was excommunicated from the church recently, capping a nine-month power struggle with Jeffs.

In an apparent move to solidify his control, Jeffs on Jan. 14 ordered 20 men to leave the area, but without their wives, children and personal property. Jeffs said a vision from God told him to force the men out. He later purged more men from the community, including Chatwin.

Chatwin said Jeffs "has to be stopped."

Jeffs, 47, took over the church after the 2002 death of his father, Rulon, despite a push for two more popular church elders in the community. Both men, in their 90s, were excommunicated in the Jan. 14 purge.

Three 16-year-old girls are known to have run away from the enclave since the men's excommunications. Two are in foster care in Phoenix, and the other is in state custody in Utah.

Chatwin said his willingness to talk could put him in danger in the community, notorious for retaliating against malcontents. He said he did it to encourage others to stand up to Jeffs, especially those who have been ordered out.

"If a few stand up, it could make it better for all," he said.

Chatwin advocates polygamy but has only one wife and six children. Chatwin's wife, Lori, 32, is standing by her husband. "I'm not going to leave him," she said.

Women and children are considered property and have no rights under church laws.

Colorado City and its adjacent counterpart, Hildale, Utah, form what many believe to be the center of the American polygamist movement.

The attorneys general in Utah and Arizona have been investigating both communities for several years. Chatwin said he was cooperating with investigators from both states, but declined to be more specific.

Utah attorney general investigator Ron Barton also was in Colorado City, saying the state is concerned about public safety.

Barton said the state is investigating the towns because "families are being destroyed." Barton refused to say whether criminal charges were being considered against Jeffs.

Former Hildale police officer Rodney Holm last year was convicted of bigamy and unlawful sex with a girl he took as a third wife when she was 16.

Holm was sentenced to a year in jail, and his police certification was revoked.

Jeffs' Salt Lake City attorney, R. Scott Berry, did not return calls seeking comment.

The mainstream Mormon church abandoned polygamy a century ago as the Utah territory sought statehood, but the fundamentalists refused to give up the practice.

Rulon Jeffs had an estimated 35 to 75 wives.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company