Mark Shurtleff: Attorney general tackles Utah's toughest issues

"I'm thinking, here's my witness," says Shurtleff. "But she told me she can't be a witness until she gets custody of her children, until she has a place to stay, a job, schools for her kids. That was an awakening for me. There aren't services available for people who are being victimized. They can't leave. They won't leave. So we created a safety net for the victims."

Others have sobbed in Shurtleff's office as they related life in Jeffs' cult — boys kicked out of their homes and community in the middle of the night, families having their houses taken and sold or given to someone else, men having their jobs taken on a whim. Jeffs was able to do much of this under the guise of a charitable trust the FLDS Church had filed with the state, Shurtleff says.

The trust was supposed to distribute property, profits and funds to the community according to need, but in reality Jeffs was fleecing the $110 million trust to enrich himself and to reward those in his favor, Shurtleff believes. The state courts have taken control of the trust.

"It's ironic," says Shurtleff. "Even though those people hate me and think I'm trying to hurt them, I've made it so Jeffs can't kick them out of their house and job. We've protected their rights. We had been turning a blind eye to it, thinking it's just adults and nobody's getting hurt. That might be true for most, but there are a lot who don't have the protection of the law."

So Shurtleff has found himself on a personal crusade against polygamy, which has earned him more enemies than friends. There are those who think he gives the state a black eye by putting polygamy in the news; there are those who think he persecutes polygamists; and there are those who criticize him for not prosecuting the actual practice of polygamy.

"Aurelius said it's the fate of a leader to do men good and to be hated for it," he says.

Sitting in his office late one afternoon, Shurtleff is affable, friendly and surprisingly candid. He speaks freely and openly. When he took office, he told his official spokesman, Paul Murphy, not to manage him; he was going to speak his mind.

Says Murphy, "It seems like in half his press conferences he says, 'Paul told me not to say this, but....' I learned that he's going to speak from the heart and say what he thinks is right. That's just Mark."

There is a tuxedo hanging on the back of the office door, ready for the many speaking engagements that are asked of him. He usually shows up at such functions alone. M'Liss rarely appears with him in public.

"I'm sure some wonder, 'Where's his wife?"' says Shurtleff. "The deal was, someone has to be at the soccer games and school plays. If it comes between that and a fund-raiser, she's going to be with the kids."