State Asks for Takeover of Polygamous Towns’ Water Utility

SALT LAKE CITY (AP/Staff) – The Utah Attorney General has filed a lawsuit asking a judge to take over a polygamous community’s water utility amid allegations that managers loyal to imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs have siphoned off $1.7 million in revenue. Jeffs is serving a life sentence at the Louis C. Powledge Unit near Palestine for sexually assaulting underage girls he considered brides. But he is thought to still be leading the sect from prison.

State attorneys say in court documents filed Monday that the money went toward managers’ personal expenses and goods for Jeffs’s followers in the community located along the Utah-Arizona border. They allege the water system in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona is in disrepair and Twin City Water Works managers don’t have proper training to keep the system running. The water company had denied making improper payments and says the utility is solvent. The Attorney General wants a southern Utah judge to dissolve the utility and appoint new managers.