Polygamists' offices searched
 Computers and records are seized by the state in northwest Arizona in a probe of school district spending.
 
The Associated Press
Tucson Citizen
 
PHOENIX - State authorities are investigating questionable spending and possible misuse of vehicles and equipment owned by a polygamist community's financially troubled school district, newly released records indicate.

Investigators for the attorney general on Tuesday seized a truckload of computers and paper records from the Colorado City Unified School District offices in the isolated community north of the Colorado River in far northwestern Arizona. The community is dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous offshoot of the mainstream Mormon Church.

In an affidavit requesting a search warrant, Special Agent Meg Pollard cited the district's purchase of an airplane, officials' use of district vehicles, the transfer of the district's bus barn to the town of Colorado City without apparent benefit to the district and the full-time employment status of officials' relatives whose work appeared to consist of driving school buses.

Pollard's affidavit, which was filed Sunday and unsealed May 27, also said there was "probable cause" to believe that district Superintendent Alvin S. Barlow, business manager Jeffrey P. Jessop and assistant business manager Oliver B. Barlow had committed the crime of misuse of public funds.

"Probable cause" is a legal term that means there are facts and circumstances to indicate something is true. However, it is a significantly lower standard of proof than the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt needed for a criminal conviction.

Neither of the Barlows nor Jessop immediately returned telephone messages left for them at the district's office yesterday. None has been charged.

A document that Pollard filed yesterday to report on the search said material seized included numerous computers as well as dozens of file cabinets, boxes and books of bank records, cash receipts, photocopies of checks, financial journals, invoices, payroll reports, travel claims and personnel files.

Andrea Esquer, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Terry Goddard, said the seized material filled most of a 28-foot U-Haul van. Officers from the state Department of Public Safety and the Mohave County Sheriff's Department helped with the search, she said.

Esquer said state investigators are reviewing the material seized, but she declined to comment on what will happen next.

Goddard, whose office has been investigating the district for two years, has said he plans to ask the state Board of Education to appoint a receiver to oversee the district. A new state law allowing the board to put a district into financial receivership for financial mismanagement takes effect Aug. 12.

The district's teachers went unpaid for two months last year because it ran out of money. Critics blamed the district's financial problems on a bloated work force, among other things.
 
tucsoncitizen.com
Originally published Saturday, May 28, 2005
 
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