Couple Awarded $5.3M For Lengthy Denial of Utilities By FLDS Church

Last Thursday, a jury in an Arizona federal district court awarded damages totaling nearly $5.3 million to Ronald and Jinjer Cooke who sued after towns controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 2008 denied them access to water, sewers and electricity for the home they were building.  The Salt Lake Tribune reports the Cookes argued that the mostly polygamous towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah discriminated against them because they are not members of the FLDS Church. They eventually got electicity and sewage, but are still being denied water. The cities say that the Cookes moved in as a test case for the state of Utah's efforts to reform the trust that holds FLDS land in the cities. (See prior related posting.)