Shurtleff calls Sen. Harry Reid's comments ‘grossly uninformed'

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Carole Mikita and Becky Bruce reportingUtah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is still steamed at Nevada Sen. Harry Reid. He says the senator's comments on polygamy are "grossly uninformed."

"To come from somebody like Senator Reid -- who not only in his position of leadership, but the fact that he's from Nevada -- you'd think he would know better," Shurtleff said.

Reid criticized Utah and Arizona for failing to "go after" polygamists. He said this on KSL Radio's Doug Wright Show: "I think the states of Utah and Arizona have ignored a festering problem."

Shurtleff fired back by asking if the senator is aware of what polygamists are doing in his state of Nevada. Everyone in the country was watching the Warren Jeffs case, he said, and when the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) leader married underage girls to older men, it wasn't in Utah.

Shurtleff calls Sen. Harry Reid's comments ‘grossly uninformed'

"Warren Jeffs is sitting behind bars for five to life, and there'll be more on top of that. In that case, that 14-year-old was married by Warren Jeffs, [that] marriage performed in Senator Reid's state of Nevada," Shurtleff said.

Jeffs was also arrested in Nevada. This case is just one example, Shurtleff says, of Nevada's role in polygamists' crimes and why he was so surprised to hear Reid say this: "I believe there should be a task force assigned and cause the states of Utah and Arizona to do the right thing. … It's just, to me, in our country, to think this could go on un-assailed, everybody just accepts it. I can't imagine how that can be the case."

"There are enclaves of FLDS living in Mesquite, in Henderson, all around Las Vegas," Shurtleff said.

The state of Utah went after Warren Jeffs' financial power. Jeffs used the United Effort Plan (UEP) to kick some followers out of their homes, their jobs and their families; re-assigning women and children to other men.

But Shurtleff says, as Utah closed in, Jeffs moved his operation. "Their most profitable company was called Western Precision, and they unfortunately got it out just before we clamped down on it. Guess where that's at? Las Vegas, Nevada. And they have federal contracts worth millions of dollars; and what has the majority leader of the Senate done about that?" he asked.

But the attorney general says he will forgive, even praise, Reid if he will push federal legislation the Utah Attorney General's Office has requested for years. "We have tried to get them to look into the child labor law violations, federal racketeering laws, federal income tax evasion, welfare fraud, and we have run up to a brick wall. So, if he could get that, that's his purpose, we'd be very grateful to him," Shurtleff said.

Shurtleff is also reminding Reid that the FLDS community bought the 1,700 acres in Eldorado, Texas, in 2002 because it was then legal to marry at age 14 there and not in Utah.

E-mail: cmikita@ksl.com
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com