Colorado City, USA - For years there has been friction in this polygamist community on the Utah – Arizona border. Who is to blame for that friction is a continuing debate, but it is almost always between the followers of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs and the small but growing group of “apostates.”
The Civil Rights Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office is already investigating a number of discrimination claims against the FLDS. This week a new complaint was added that some say shows a new depth of animosity and just plain meanness.
Violet Jessop and Leroy Stubbs have lived in the community all their lives. Their family ties to Colorado City go back generations.
They asked to bury their infant girl, Angellee, in the Stubbs family’s section of the town cemetery. About a month ago, the baby was killed in the same car accident that severely injured her mother.
The funeral for the 10-month old baby was delayed until last Sunday so her mother could attend in a wheelchair. Violet said, “I knew that if I didn’t see her and hold her one last time I’d regret it.”
The Stubbs got permission from the court-appointed administrator over the town’s properties, but could find no one to help prepare the grave. So, the day before the graveside service, Ross Chatwin, a family friend, took a shovel and dug it himself.
But when family arrived at the cemetery the next day, they discovered the grave had been filled in and another small grave opened in a corner on the other side of the cemetery.
Orders went out to gather more shovels and the grave in the family’s section was dug a second time. Isaac Wyler, remembers, “I told Ross, ‘why don’t you take your shovel and start re-digging that grave and I’ll run home and get some more shovels.’ And by then there was enough people here that we dug the grave back out.”
The family was determined that their wishes be fulfilled, but the harassment was not over. Witnesses say two FLDS men threatened to stop the burial by force. Those witnesses say only the intervention of town marshals prevented it.
But the marshals did not stop others from trying to disrupt the service by taking close-up pictures of the mourners. “I mean right up to you,” explained LeRoy Stubbs. “They got their big cameras and were taking their pictures. If we would have done that to them, they would have cuffed and stuffed so quick you wouldn’t believe it.”
“It was horrible,” summed up Wyler. “It was just totally insensitive to the grieving family.”
Violet said, “It hurt because, you know what? They don’t have a right to treat us like that. We might not believe the same, but our grandparents created this for us. And it doesn’t matter what we believe. We still deserve to have the same consideration.”
These insults, say LeRoy and Violet, run deeper and hurt more than others they have endured. They ask why a group that claims to be God’s chosen cannot show a grieving family a little Christian compassion.
As of Thursday – four days after the burial – the lone grave in the corner of the cemetery remained open. Friends of the Stubbs believe it is a silent taunt that little Angellee’s coffin might yet be dug up and moved.