Ex-Polygamist Church Man Alleges Civil Rights Violations
Wednesday, August 02, 2006

SALT LAKE CITY — A former member of a southern Utah polygamist church has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit claiming police handcuffed him and tossed him out of his Hildale home last year because he was no longer loyal to the faith.

Andrew Chatwin said he filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City because police and other city officials in Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz., are more loyal to leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — who have long dominated both communities — than to the U.S. Constitution.

"The police department and really the whole Colorado City-Hildale government is a theocracy government. They're run by the church," Chatwin said Tuesday. "That's really the appropriate word for what's going on down there and we're exposing that theocracy."
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