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Hildale • The mayor of a polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona line accepted a subpoena Wednesday, two days after the U.S. Department of Justice said it couldn't find him.
Colorado City, Ariz., Mayor Joseph Allred accepted the subpoena Wednesday at town hall, according to the man who served him, private investigator Sam Brower, who has worked for the Justice Department in its civil rights lawsuit against Colorado City and adjacent Hildale, Utah.
The subpoena calls Allred to testify in January at a civil trial at the federal courthouse in Phoenix. The Justice Department alleges the two towns, collectively known as Short Creek, discriminate against people who do not follow the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The judge in the case on Monday granted a Justice Department motion to serve Allred by mailing him a subpoena and posting a copy on the town hall door. The Justice Department motion described how Brower had tried for weeks to find Allred at town hall and his home, but Brower never saw Allred and city staff and a person at Allred's home denied knowing his whereabouts or schedule.
The service Wednesday was arranged by Colorado City attorney Jeff Matura, who told the Justice Department when and where they could serve Allred. In a response motion Matura filed Wednesday with the court, he refuted that Brower had ever been denied access to town hall, pointing out that Brower was able to enter the city council chambers during a meeting for which Allred was not present.
Finding members of the FLDS to serve them with court papers has been a longstanding problem.
A former marshal for the towns, Helaman Barlow, has testified that the towns had a system for warning residents over municipal-owned radios when a process server was in town. Lawyers in both civil and criminal cases frequently seek permission from judges to serve Hildale and Colorado City residents through alternative means, such as door postings or buying legal ads in newspapers.
Allred has been evasive even when law enforcement has located him. During a civil trial in 2014 — when the two towns were accused of denying utilities to a family who is not FLDS — Allred cited his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer any questions on the witness stand.
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