Not enough resources to fight polygamy?

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff believes crimes are being committed in polygamous communities on the Utah-Arizona border, but he told a national TV audience Tuesday he hasn't the resources or enough evidence to prosecute.

With 30,000 to 40,000 polygamists in Utah, the state doesn't have the resources to jail so many parents and then take some 20,000 children into state custody, Shurtleff said on the "Dr. Phil" show. He also said prosecution for crimes, which he believes may range from domestic violence to child sexual abuse and forcing teenage girls to marry older men, would require someone to leave the Hildale-Colorado City community and testify against family.

"It's always been very difficult with the closed nature of these groups in order to get people to come forward," Shurtleff said in an interview after the show aired. "Even with people we feel are criminals, we're not going to arrest them . . . unless we have a case we can prove without a reasonable doubt."

Shurtleff appeared on Dr. Phil's "Inside the Cult" hourlong segment, a follow-up to the "Brainwashed Brides" show that aired early this month. That show featured Fawn Broadbent and Fawn Holm, teenage girls who fled their polygamous border-town home last year but since had second thoughts about leaving.

The Fawns' parents are members of the FLDS church, which teaches that plural marriage is central to one's eternal salvation and key to the highest degree of heaven. Faithful FLDS men typically have one legal wife and several "spiritual" wives.

Tuesday's show included footage of McGraw's son, Jay, who visited the border community with Shurtleff and found it difficult to talk to locals or get answers about polygamy or alleged abuses therein.

It also included footage of a summit and a live interview with polygamist women saying they are consenting adults and are among "many, many happy families" living a free-chosen lifestyle.

"Polygamy does not necessarily equal abuse . . . we don't deserve that stigma," said a woman identified as Ruth who grew up in Colorado City but now lives in Canada in a polygamous home.

"I chose the situation I'm in" and was married at age 20, she said. "I don't think it should be legalized . . . (but) polygamy should be decriminalized."