This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The civil rights trial for the towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., is scheduled to begin its third week on Monday, and the U.S. Department of Justice plans to call more witnesses who used to belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Those witnesses are to include Jerold Williams, who used to be in charge of the FLDS compound in Pringle, S.D. According to a brief the Justice Department submitted before the trial, he's to discuss how water connections were issued to FLDS buildings in Short Creek at a time when they were not being issued to others and how his underage daughter married Colorado City Mayor Joseph Allred.
Williams' wife, Elizabeth Wayman, is also expected to testify this week. Both husband and wife are also expected to testify about their departures from the church and the harassment they claim they suffered from the town marshals after that departure.
A few other former FLDS members are expected to testify this week, too, though it's not clear when the Justice Department plans to call Vincen and Helaman Barlow. The half-brothers were the Hildale city manager and the chief marshal, respectively, and have both become witnesses for the plaintiffs.
The Justice Department alleges the municipal governments and the marshals collude with the church to discriminate against people who no longer follow or are out of favor with the FLDS. The trial is expected to last three more weeks.
So far, the Justice Department has called six former sect members and a handful of law enforcement officials to testify about life in the towns and how town officials sent letters to now-imprisoned FLDS President Warren Jeffs.
Lawyers for the towns have pointed out that many of the letters are 10 years old or more and town marshals have been cooperative on many occasions.
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