This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Polygamous towns on the Utah-Arizona line will not be sanctioned for police reports that were altered and lost after the U.S. Department of Justice requested them as part of a civil rights lawsuit.
Federal Judge H. Russel Holland ruled Friday that while the town marshals in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., intentionally altered the reports, the towns have since made an effort to retrieve the originals. Also, Holland said in a written ruling, there's no evidence the Justice Department is harmed by not having three months of original reports that could not be retrieved.
Holland wrote that he "is satisfied that Colorado City has undertaken every reasonable effort to locate unaltered reports or regenerate data that would replicate alterations of police reports...."
The Justice Department sued Hildale and Colorado City in 2012 alleging they discriminate against people who are not in good standing with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One of the Justice Department's contentions is that the marshals in Hildale and Colorado City act as arms of the FLDS.
Holland said he may inform the jury of what occurred with the police reports when the case goes to trial. A trial has not been scheduled.
The Justice Department sent the towns an order to provide about five years of police reports. But after the towns received the order, the marshals altered some reports. In court motions, lawyers for Short Creek have said their clients were not trying to obstruct the Justice Department but were trying to finalize reports they hadn't finished yet and correct some embarrassing grammar and spelling mistakes.
One attorney for Hildale has said then-Chief Marshal Helaman Barlow ordered the alterations. Barlow has since been fired by the towns and he has given depositions in support of the Justice Department discussing how the marshals acted on behalf of the FLDS.
After the alterations were discovered, the towns were able to retrieve unaltered reports. But a bug in the commercial record-keeping software used by the marshals made it impossible to recover three months of reports spanning early 2013.
The Justice Department had sought sanctions against the towns that could have included fines.
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