FLDS man sues Arizona over loss of police job

A former police officer from a polygamous community has filed a lawsuit against Arizona officials, claiming he was defamed and his civil rights violated when they revoked his police certification.

Attorneys for Preston Barlow filed the lawsuit Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix. Named as defendants are Attorney General Terry Goddard, two investigators and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.

Barlow's certification was revoked in September 2007, after allegations of misconduct the previous year.

The lawsuit contends that Barlow, a member of the Utah-based Fundamentalist LDS Church, was targeted for his faith and misled about the nature of the investigation that ended with his decertification and the loss of his job.

Barlow, 30, is one of at least six officers from the Colorado City Town Marshal's office to be decertified by authorities in Arizona or Utah since 2003, some for the practice of polygamy, a tenet of the FLDS faith. Barlow is the first to file a civil-rights lawsuit against officials in either state.

In addition to unspecified punitive damages, legal fees and lost wages, the lawsuit seeks Barlow's reinstatement as a police officer and a retraction of statements which Barlow believes were defamatory.

Telephone messages seeking comment from Goddard's office and Arizona's POST were not immediately returned Monday.

In 2007, POST director Tom Hammarstrom said Barlow's decertification stemmed from his refusal to cooperate with multiple inquiries, including a civil investigation of allegations that Colorado City police failed to enforce court orders related to property held in a church trust and a criminal investigation into the whereabouts of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, then a fugitive from criminal charges.

A former paramedic and police dispatcher, Barlow graduated with honors from Utah's police academy in October 2005. He then sought certification from Arizona, taking a polygraph and law enforcement competency tests. He was certified as a police officer on March 2, 2006.

Investigators from Goddard's office launched an investigation 26 days later with an unannounced visit to the Colorado City marshal's office, according to the lawsuit.

Barlow's attorneys contend the investigation was labeled an "inquiry" related only to improving law enforcement and not related to the religious affiliation of deputies.