Barlow, 50, pleaded no contest in Arizona last year to a charge of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. The Colorado City, Ariz., man was accused of fathering a child with a 16-year-old girl. He spent 45 days in the Mohave County Jail and will spend three years on probation. Barlow is also a registered sex offender.

His probation officer said Barlow has regularly checked in.

Barlow's situation is being watched closely by those in the FLDS strongholds of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. As the meeting was under way, an SUV with tinted windows sat parked across the street — the men inside watching the law enforcement officers. When a Deseret News reporter approached the vehicle, it drove away.

Such vehicles commonly follow outsiders as they travel around the fundamentalist border towns.

Barlow wouldn't say anything as he left the meeting but told the Deseret News in an earlier interview that he had never been to the Texas ranch.

"I do not know this girl that they keep asking about," he said.

Griffen said Texas Rangers plan to attempt to corroborate Barlow's claim that they have the wrong man as their suspect.

"I think these gentlemen are here in good faith. I think they're willing to take a look at the possibility that a mistake has been made and they're not putting the cart before the horse," he said Saturday. "I think they've got a lot of collateral information that's indicated that Mr. Barlow is not an individual that they should have any interest in."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com