Mohave County prosecutors are considering postponing or dismissing cases against eight residents of a polygamous community who are charged with sex offenses involving marriages to underage girls because they're having problems finding witnesses.
"So far, we haven't been able to serve the victims in either case," County Attorney Matt Smith said. "We've not had any luck serving people. They are running, they are hiding, they are changing houses, they are not answering the door."
Smith said Mohave County sheriff's deputies were able to serve only one of four subpoenas on potential witnesses during a search of homes in Colorado City, Ariz., on May 25.
Colorado City, along with Hildale, Utah, is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose followers practice plural marriage as a tenet of faith and believe it necessary to earn heavenly exaltation. The FLDS and other fundamentalist Mormons have their roots in the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which abandoned polygamy in 1890 and now excommunicates those who embrace it.
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The first trial — of Kelly Fischer, 39 — is scheduled to begin July 5 in Mohave County Superior Court in Kingman, with one for Dale Evans Barlow, 48, to follow on July 11.
