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The civil rights trial against Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., resumes Monday in Phoenix. So far there's been testimony about how the towns and their police force allegedly collude with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-Day Saints as well as allegations of fraud with food stamps and efforts to redistribute prescription drugs.

The trial recessed at the end of Thursday with FBI Supervisory Agent Robert Foster on the witness stand discussing the 2005 and 2006 search for FLDS President Warren Jeffs. During that search, the FBI seized letters from officials in the towns intended for Jeffs. There was no court Friday. Foster's testimony will probably conclude Monday morning.

The next witness also is expected to testify about correspondence between Jeffs and town officials. The U.S. Department of Justice will call an employee of the mailroom in the Texas prison where Jeffs is incarcerated.

Monday afternoon, federal attorneys are expected to call Willie Jessop. He was once in Jeffs' hierarchy. Jessop had a role in church security and was the FLDS' legal coordinator, in which he met with attorneys on behalf of the church and devised strategy. Jessop also served as church spokesman for a time.

The trial's first witness, Dowayne Barlow, testified Wednesday and Thursday about some of those legal strategy sessions that included Lyle Jeffs, who is the brother of the imprisoned church president, and people who held seats on the towns' councils.

After Jessop, the sequence of witnesses isn't known. But the Justice Department is still planning to call Hildale's former city manager and the two towns' former chief marshal, half brothers Vincen and Helaman Barlow, respectively. Another planned witness is Charlene Jeffs, the ex-wife of Lyle Jeffs.

The defense strategy so far has been to attack the credibility of the witnesses who used to belong to the FLDS. That is likely to continue throughout the trial.

The trial is expected to last four more weeks. The Justice Department has two claims: that the marshals in Hildale and Colorado City, collectively known as Short Creek, have practiced a pattern of discrimination and that the towns have committed housing discrimination. The Justice Department has not said what damages it wants if the jury finds in its favor, but it is expected to seek monetary damages and to ask Judge H. Russel Holland to disband the marshals' office.

Twitter: @natecarlisle