This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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 towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., will try to prove this week that their municipal governments are secular.
The fifth week of the discrimination trial begins Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the towns, alleging they discriminate against people who do not follow leaders of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Defense attorneys for the towns plan to call to the witness stand people who have worked for and executed the machinations of government in the towns.
The defense is expected to call former Hildale city prosecutor Nathan Caplin and current Colorado City prosecutor Ken Brendel. Neither man is a member of the FLDS. They are lawyers who were hired as prosecutors in the towns' municipal courts.
According to a brief filed before the trial, Caplin and Brendel will testify they saw the towns behave in a secular manner and without religious entanglements.
They should rebut testimony from witnesses the Justice Department called during the first 3 1/2 weeks of the civil trial. Former FLDS members testified they were mistreated by the towns' joint police force, called marshals, and were denied city services, including utilities. Members of law enforcement testified about communications between municipal officials and imprisoned FLDS President Warren Jeffs.
The defense began last week with testimony from Hildale Mayor Philip Barlow. He denied there was coordination between the towns, collectively known as Short Creek, and the church, though acknowledged he was opposed to subdividing the town for religious reasons, according to The Associated Press.
The defense is also expected this week to call David Darger, Colorado City's town manager.
The trial had been expected to last five weeks, but is likely to exceed that. The defense is expected to rest by Feb. 23.
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