Salt Lake City, USA - Arizona's attorney general has filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a disabled man who was allegedly denied access to water and power at his home because he is no longer a member of a sect that practices polygamy in a community on the Utah-Arizona border.
Ron Cooke, his wife Jinjer and their children live in Colorado City, Ariz. The town, along with Hildale, Utah, is the primary base of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the elected leaders and employees of both towns are largely church members.
Filed last month in Phoenix, the lawsuit stems from a 2008 civil rights complaint levied by Cooke and contends that he was denied access to utilities by the joint agency that serves the cities.
Investigators determined in April that Cooke's complaints were valid and filed the lawsuit late last month.
Prosecutors contend the defendants — the cities of Hildale and Colorado City, the Twin City Water Authority and Hildale-Colorado City Utilities, an intergovernmental agency that provides power, water, gas and sewer services — demanded Cooke apply for building permits, provide building plans meet other requirements before being considered for services, but did not require the same from residents who are members of the church.
Prosecutors say the denial is a violation of state fair housing laws and want a judge to order the utilities connected and impose fines. They also want the defendants barred from using religion as the basis for denying utility services in the future to other residents who aren't church members.
But Blake Hamilton, a Salt Lake City attorney who represents the cities and the water authority, said when the evidence comes out, it won't support the allegations.
"It's important for people to know that the cities worked very hard at trying to resolve this matter before it got to litigation," Hamilton said Wednesday.
The Cookes also have filed a civil case in federal court. It seeks unspecified financial compensation for the two-year period that the Cookes had to carry in water, carry out waste and rely on a gas generator for power.
Cooke was disabled in a Phoenix-area construction accident in 2005.
The family returned to Colorado City in 2008 and rented a home from a court-appointed accountant who is charged with managing a land trust once run by church leaders.
According to the lawsuit, Cooke uses a wheelchair and is dependent on basic utility service to assist in his medical care, including flushing catheters with water and powering a breathing machine that runs while Cooke sleeps.
Court papers detail nearly two years of attempts by the Cookes to meet the demands of the cities and obtain permits to complete the unfinished home they rented and get utility services.
But the papers show the cities took no action or rejected the applications, claiming a water shortage prevented new service connections from being granted.
The couple eventually got electricity, but is still without water service.