Family wins lawsuit against polygamous towns, gets millions

[alp227]

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

A jury Thursday sided with a family living in a polygamous community, awarding them $5.2 million for years of religious discrimination.

The ruling concludes the Cooke family’s civil rights trial, in which they argued that the mostly-polygamous towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, discriminated against them for not being members of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The family moved to the area, known as Short Creek, in 2008 but were refused access to utilities for years.

The Cookes subsequently sued and the case has been playing out for the last two months in Phoenix’s U.S. District Court.

The jury deliberated through the day Thursday before siding with the Cookes. It ultimately awarded husband Ronald Cooke and wife Jinjer Cooke $650,000 each for discrimination, as well as $1.95 million each for retaliation and interference, according to their attorney William Walker.

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57710092-78/cookes-family-walker-attorneys.html.csp

[brett_jv]

1. Wow. Just ... wow ...

Good for them.

The fact that this sort of thing would actually be going on is nothing short of mind-blowing. What century is this, again? And what COUNTRY did this happen in?

Friggin' crazytown, man.

BTW, why were TWO towns, in two states, involved here? Did these people move to BOTH of them or something?

[Warpy]

3. I don't fault them for being clannish

They've endured a lot of persecution for the polygamous marriages.

However, I can't see them turning this against people who had no intent to snub them or turn them in to the cops, not that it would have done much good. The existence of closed polygamous communities is a pretty open secret.

This is one award that I hope is not reduced on appeal. The way those towns act against non polygamous families is shameful. The only thing that will change it is a hard kick to the wallet.

ETA: Colorado City and Hildale straddle the border between UT and AZ. It's basically the same town, just with two different names.

[KamaAina]

13. They are adjacent

separated by the Utah-Arizona state line. In fact. that's why they were founded: after Utah banned polygamy as a condition of admission to the Union, the polygamists set up shop on the border of what was then the Arizona Territory.

[leftynyc]

2. Read about this place in

Under The Banner of Heaven and couldn't believe this was going on in the US. Good for the Cooke family!!

[krkaufman]

16. reading stack

Heh, my sister gave me that book to read quite a while ago. Need to get on that; thanks for the tip.

[Enthusiast]

4. Fundamentalists are some dangerous people.

They would do worse than denying access to utilities given the chance. I mean, they have sex with little girls. Seriously.

[Brigid]

5. Why did the Cookes move there to begin with?

I don't see what could have made it worth all the hassle.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. Well, they did make 5 million or so out of it.

That's a hell of a payday for a few years of putting up with a bunch of total jerks.

[Brigid]

9. The article says they are still without water.

And the $5 million payday may never happen. Even if it does, the neighbors are still, as you put it, total jerks. I just don't see the attraction.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

10. Well, I'd take the cash and leave.

Cause I certainly don't see any attraction to being there other than such a potential payday.

[Ikonoklast]

11. Read this.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogspolygblog/57598027-185/ron-cookes-jinjer-tuesday.html.csp



I feel for them, they have suffered enough.

[Brigid]

12. Thank you.

They certainly have suffered enough. I was just puzzled as to what led them to move there, of all places. I hope they don't have to get a court order just to get their water hooked up.

[cab67]

14. In my perhaps uninformed opinion,

it doesn't really matter. This sort of discrimination is wrong, whether it's happening to an African-American family moving into a predominantly white neighborhood, a gay couple moving into pretty much any suburban or rural area, or a couple and their children moving into a neighborhood of polygamists. Public services should never be contingent on conforming to some sort of "standard."

[Brigid]

15. Your opinion is not uninformed.

Of course the Cookes have the right to live there if they want to. And I am sure they didn't expect to encounter problems getting utilities hooked up just because they are not FLDS. But Colorado City, from what little I know, just seems like a creepy, dusty little town in the middle of nowhere, full of strange people. I just wondered what the attraction was. Turns our Mr. Cooke was from the area.

[L0oniX]

6. The LDS in any form is a cult IMO.

[JackInGreen]

8. Is it really focul to the civil rights issue

that the towns were polygamous? I mean, I know it's often a watchword for Mormon and the like, but is it that much of a defining factor?
(poly and don't want to be associated to these shit-heels)

[krkaufman]

17. Don't know

I don't know, not having dove into the story, but I understand your point.

The article I'm seeing came from the Salt Lake Tribune, so it may be possible that they're trying to focus on the "polygamy" aspect of the story so as to dilute implication of LDS, generally.