Cop Pledged Love to Polygamist Leader

[Judi Lynn]

Dec 8, 3:50 PM EST

Cop Pledged Love to Polygamist Leader

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The chief law enforcer in two Utah-Arizona border towns is accused of misconduct after writing a letter pledging love and allegiance to the leader of a polygamous sect, who was on the FBI's most wanted list at the time.

"I love you and ... know that you have the right to rule in all aspects of my life," Fred Barlow wrote in the October 2005 letter to Warren Jeffs. "Without priesthood I am nothing."

Barlow warmly addressed Jeffs as "Uncle Warren" and closed the letter by referring to himself as Jeffs' "servant."

Barlow is the police chief of a joint department serving Colorado City, Ariz. and Hildale, Utah. Jeffs is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which has 10,000 followers in those two towns.

The FLDS church practices polygamy and congregants revere Jeffs as a prophet and are taught to be obedient, including marrying at his behest.

Jeffs was arrested near Las Vegas on Aug. 28. A judge will decide next Thursday whether he will stand trial in Utah on charges of rape as an accomplice for forcing a teenage girl to marry an older cousin. He also faces similar charges in Arizona.
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/POLYGAMIST_LEADER_POLICE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-12-08-15-50-30

[Bobbieo]

1. Remember reading about Barlow last spring.

Think he had a young wife or two himself. Guess you can't miss if you have the law behind you in a given area even in a community filled with rape and incest.

[phusion]

4. Yes...

I think he is related to John Yates Barlow who was one of the early leaders of the polygamist branch.

[VegasWolf]

2. The ongoing INSANITY of the invisible sky people fearer!

[Casablanca]

3. Now don't you feel safer already?

Knowing that the thin blue line is being defended by a bunch of armed, sexually deviant Moonies with badges?

There must be something in the water in Utah. A place where wife-swappers put up highway billboards preaching against the evils of porn.

But maybe that's just the nature of modern politics.

[grytpype]

5. What a bunch of freaks.

Religion destroys people's brains. It's worse than alcohol and syphilis put together.