This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Polygamous towns on the Utah-Arizona line have finalized an agreement with the federal government to pay damages to nine people in a discrimination case.
The financial settlement totals $1.6 million. It still needs approval from U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland.
But the settlement does not resolve what could be the major fallout from the March guilty verdicts delivered by a jury in the civil trial: what changes should Holland order in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.?
The jury that the towns, collectively known as Short Creek and home of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, committed housing discrimination against non-FLDS members and provided them unequal police protections
The U.S. Department of Justice is expected this month to ask Holland to order changes that could include the appointment of a monitor and the disbanding the towns' police force.
Hildale, Colorado City and one water utility will each pay $55,000 in penalties to the federal government. They also will collectively pay $173,125 to each of eight people identified as victims of discrimination, and $50,000 to a ninth person.
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