FLDS allowing ex-members back in the fold

Former Colorado City town councilman William "Bill" Shapley was reinstated last year. An investigator in the Mohave County Attorney's Office believes Shapley was allowed back in to control his daughter. Candi Shapley refused to testify Tuesday at a trial in Kingman, Ariz., against her polygamist husband, Randolph Barlow.

"I think that's the reason he was let back in," Mohave County attorney's investigator Gary Engels said of Bill Shapley's reinstatement. Since then, Engels said his witness has gone from being willing to hostile.

"It has big effects, huge effects with the victim," he told the Deseret Morning News.

Barlow is one of eight Colorado City men facing charges of sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor.

Candi Shapley, now 20, claims she was ordered by Warren Jeffs to marry Barlow at age 16. Previously, she had told a Mohave County grand jury that she had never met Barlow before marrying him and was forced to have sex with him.

After refusing to testify about her relationship with Barlow this week, the judge found Shapley in contempt and ordered her to spend 30 days in an abused women's shelter and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

Mohave County prosecutors said in court Tuesday that Shapley may have been influenced by members of her family who were trying to protect Jeffs.

Ex-members said more people have been recently kicked out of the FLDS Church.

"He is literally king," ex-FLDS member Andrew Chatwin said. "He rules the mayors, the police department, the schools, the homes."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com