An Arizona judge is weighing whether to remove prosecutors from a public corruption case against a pair of polygamous town officials due to what the defense calls a conflict of interest.
Colorado City Fire Chief Jacob Barlow and town Manager David Darger face more than a dozen felony allegations each, including unauthorized TurboTax purchases and hundreds of dollars in travel expenses.
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The defense attorneys say prosecutors have a conflict of interest because they were also representing the fire district at the time the allegations happened.
But in a hearing Friday, Deputy Mohave County Attorney James Schoppman said the defense hadn’t shown exactly when or how his office represented the fire district, the Mohave Daily News reported. Even if he had represented the fire district, Schoppman argued he shouldn’t be barred from prosecuting individual officials, according to the newspaper.
Defense attorney Mike Piccarreta, on the other had, said Friday there would be no downside to switching to another prosecutor, according to the Daily News. No immediate release date was set for Mohave County Judge Steven Conn’s ruling.
Calling the charges a "witch hunt" against members of the Warren Jeffs-led sect, Piccarreta wrote in court documents that Schoppman should have advised the fire district that using a bank account in St. George was illegal.
"Instead of advising his clients and acting in their best interest, [Schoppmann] took it upon himself to go after them and try to create a crime," he wrote. The fire department account was publicly reported, but prosecutors said using it was illegal becauseit is not the county treasurer’s "warrant account" where tax money is depositedand Far West bank doesn’t have any branches in Arizona.
The Utah-Arizona border runs between Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, and the two towns function as one community where almost all residents are members of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Piccarreta says using an additional account in Utah was more convenient, and officials didn’t know it was illegal.
Mohave County attorneys say there is no conflict on their part because they only advised the Colorado City Fire District in a very general way, like accepting audit reports, and no one ever asked about the account.
"... the court will see that the defendants miss the mark, not by a thin slice, but by a hemisphere," Schoppmann wrote in court documents.
Barlow and Darger were indicted in August on 30 and 13 public corruption counts, respectively. The charges came after police served search warrants in the twin towns, looking for evidence of illegal money transfers, unauthorized expenses during a trip to the Lava Hot Springs in Idaho, a steak dinner in St. George and food and furniture bought at Costco. Piccarreta says the charges were legitimate fire district expenses.
In addition to the motion to disqualify prosecutors, Barlow and Darger have also filed motions to remand the charges back to the grand jury and motions to dismiss due to legal insufficiency, vagueness and selective prosecution.
Twitter: @lwhitehurst
The Polygamy Blog, www.sltrib.com/blogs/polygblog
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