Phoenix • A judge has appointed an official to monitor municipal decisions in a polygamous community in Arizona and Utah as a punishment for a religious discrimination verdict.
Roger Carter, city manager of Washington, Utah, was appointed to monitor operations in the sister cities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah, on behalf of the court.
His appointment on Aug. 3 was a response to a 2016 verdict that concluded nonbelievers were denied police protection, building permits and water hookups on the basis of religion.
Carter was the last of the three outsiders who were hired to help carry out a court-ordered overhaul of the towns.
The towns were accused of serving as an arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism.