Certification revoked for polygamist officers

ST. GEORGE — In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the Utah Peace Officers Standards and Training Council voted to immediately revoke the certification of two police officers who are also polygamists.

Colorado City town marshal Sam Roundy and officer Vance Barlow will be notified of the council's decision, said Jim Eardley, a Washington County commissioner who also serves on the POST council.

"They were decertified as of today," Eardley said of the two long-time officers serving in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Washington County.

Arizona POST executive director Tom Hammarstrom said the two officers likely would face the same sanctions from Arizona.

Once Arizona begins the decertification process against Roundy and Barlow, the two men will have 30 days to request a hearing before an administrative law judge, he said.

The Colorado City police department is contracted each year to provide law enforcement services to Hildale in Washington County. Of the five full-time and two reserve officers currently working for the department, only Roundy and Barlow were targeted in Wednesday's POST action.

Most of the 7,000 residents of the two towns are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which preaches polygamy as a central tenet.

In a report compiled by Utah's former polygamy czar, Ron Barton, the Colorado City police department is referred to as "not your ordinary police department."

In a complex genealogical chart included in Barton's report, Colorado City officers are linked to each other through marriage or other family ties. According to the chart, Roundy and Barlow each have three wives.