ST. GEORGE - Attorney General Mark Shurtleff called a raid on a polygamous sect's ranch in Texas no surprise given the group's resistant, secretive practices but said Thursday he would never authorize such a move in Utah.
    "I know you are worried about that. We're not going to do it," said Shurtleff, drawing applause from a crowd at the Dixie Center packed with fundamentalist Mormons. "We don't believe that is the answer."
    It's been more than a month since Texas authorities took more than 400 children from the ranch, home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, because of abuse allegations.
    But aftershocks of the event continue to reverberate through fundamentalist Mormon communities thousands of miles away, as shown during the fourth annual town hall meeting on polygamy at the Dixie Center.
    At the back of the hall, a caution-yellow banner advertised the sect's Web site and thanked the public for its support.
    About 500 people packed two ballrooms to listen to and question Shurtleff, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, Arizona lawmaker David Lujan, Safety Net Coordinator Paul Murphy and Don Timpson, a member of the fundamentalist group known as The Work of Jesus Christ.
    Goddard called the Safety Net Committee, which brings together polygamous communities, law enforcement and service providers,
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a "movement" that would forestall a Texas-style raid.
    "I think that action was in part because that fundamentalist discussion was not taking place," he said. "The feeling was if there were children in distress there was no way they could get their voices heard. That's not true of Arizona any more."
    Shurtleff tried to quell some fears, even as he made it clear that Utah will continue to prosecute crimes that hurt women and children and said in particular that the "religious principle" of incest, practiced by a couple groups that allow close relatives to marry, was "something we will not stand for."
    He said that Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has asked FLDS leaders for a list of children and parents who are Utah residents as the first step in working to protect their interests in the Texas action.
    He also asked for a show of hands of those related to children in custody. As many as 50 hands shot up. His office is looking into helping Utah relatives become foster parents to the FLDS children.
    As in previous years, some audience members asked the attorneys general for help in pushing for decriminalization of polygamy, which they said would do more to open the closed communities than any prosecutorial action.
    Shurtleff's advice: "Wait until after the election" to bring up any such proposals.
    Timpson said removal of FLDS children in Texas could be tied back historically to Utah's move in 1935 to elevate polygamy from misdemeanor to felony status.
    That caused polygamists to seek isolated locales safe from scrutiny.
    "My belief is that the somewhat ill-conceived bigamy statute needs to be revised," he said. "It is outmoded [and] I doubt it would stand constitutional scrutiny at this time."
    Lujan, an Arizona lawmaker, came under fire for proposed legislation that would bar men who married underage girls to get custody of their children in domestic disputes.
    Earlier in the day, three panels spoke about media coverage of polygamous communities.
    One panel, comprised of plural wives from all but the FLDS community, said media tend to miss the diversity of the various groups, which collectively have about 35,000 members.
    Speakers from nonprofit social service groups said that many children they deal with have little or no education and suffer emotional problems.
    Michelle Benward, whose organization New Frontiers for Families began working with FLDS teens two years ago, said many of the children she helps have been torn by watching images of the raid on the FLDS ranch in Texas. The raid has "broken many hearts, she said.
    brooke@sltrib.com
    mhavnes@sltrib.com