11th and final FLDS member indicted for food-stamp fraud surrenders

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The 11th and final member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints indicted on federal charges of food stamp fraud surrendered to authorities Tuesday morning.

Kimball Dee Barlow, 51, of Hildale, Utah, was booked into the Washington County jail and will appear on Wednesday before a judge in St. George.

The federal government alleges that the FLDS living in Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz., collectively known as Short Creek, ordered followers receiving food stamp benefits to give to the church their government-issued debit cards. The money was spent, an indictment alleges, at church-run stores and diverted to various church and personal expenses.

Barlow, who managed the FLDS storehouse, is accused of directing church members to divert their food-stamp benefits to the storehouse, from which members are told they must obtain all of their food.

Others charged in the indictment — which alleges one count each of conspiring to defraud SNAP and conspiracy to commit money laundering — are Lyle Steed Jeffs, 56, John Clifton Wayman, 56, Winford Johnson Barlow, 50, Rulon Mormon Barlow, 45, Ruth Peine Barlow, 41, and Preston Yates Barlow, 41, all of Hildale; Nephi Steed Allred, 40, Hyrum Bygnal Dutson, 55, and Kristal Meldrum Dutson, 55, all of Colorado City; and Seth Steed Jeffs, 42, of Custer, South Dakota.

Judges have ordered that Seth Jeffs and Wayman be detained pending trial, finding that they present a risk to flee if freed.

A detention hearing is set for March 7 for Lyle Steed Jeffs, who, prosecutors say, handled day-to-day affairs of the church for his older brother, prophet Warren Jeffs, who is serving up to life in prison plus 20 years in Texas for crimes related to marrying and sexually abusing underage girls.

A number of other defendants have been booked into jail and released with GPS ankle monitoring devices.