Hobbs criticizes Biggs over bill supporters say could have curbed FLDS child sex abuse

Gov. Katie Hobbs is renewing her criticism of Republican gubernatorial opponent Andy Biggs over a 2013 bill that failed to advance while he was Arizona Senate president.

The legislation would have stripped law enforcement authority from an agency that protected Warren Jeffs, a polygamous sect leader who was found guilty of child sex crimes.

“These marshals were protecting these pedophiles and allowing them to continue to abuse and rape women and children and force them into marriage,” Hobbs told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce & Gaydos on Thursday. “And Andy Biggs stopped this bill.”

Hobbs says Andy Biggs’ actions meant FLDS ‘abuse continued for years longer’

Supporters of the bill argued that the Colorado City Marshal’s Office was protecting the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, widely known as the FLDS, and enabling ongoing abuse in the community.

FLDS is a breakaway polygamous sect based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. It has no current connection to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which forbids polygamy.

The sect was led by Jeffs, who was convicted of child sexual assault. After Jeffs was imprisoned, Samuel Bateman declared himself a prophet and formed an offshoot group with his own followers and child brides.

“Andy Biggs stopped this bill, and even the Republican sponsor said that because of that, abuse continued for years longer than it needed to,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs was referring to comments that the bill’s sponsor, then-state Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, made in an Arizona Republic report. Ugenti-Rita, a Republican, told the outlet that Biggs “protected the bad guys.”

The Colorado City Marshal’s Office has since rebranded to the Colorado City Police Department.

Bateman was sentenced to 50 years in prison and received an additional 24-year sentence Tuesday in a separate child abuse case involving three young girls, ages 11 to 14, found in a trailer without air conditioning in 2022.

What has Andy Biggs said about the 2013 bill?

Ugenti-Rita’s measure would have allowed the Arizona Department of Public Safety to take over law enforcement in Colorado City if enough local officers lost their certification through the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.

Hobbs, who was in the Legislature at the time, said lawmakers were well aware of the widespread corruption and cover-ups in Colorado City on behalf of the FLDS.

“This was well-known that there was a problem there, and the state leaders were looking for a way to tackle it, and this was a huge thing that would have helped stop the abuse,” she said.

Hobbs’ remarks came days after KTAR News reporter Heidi Hommel asked Biggs about allegations that his actions in the Legislature benefited the FLDS sect in Colorado City.

Biggs said he is not accused of benefiting the sect but of killing a bill that would have led to the police force’s decertification. He said the Fraternal Order of Police opposed the measure and noted that it never came to a vote.

Asked whether he knew about the child sexual abuse allegations at the time, Biggs said: “We heard bits and pieces of it. It was also under investigation by the feds at the time.”

 

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Katie Hobbs doesn’t buy Andy Biggs saying he knew little about sex abuse

“The fact is: This wasn’t a new issue in 2013 when … he killed that bill,” Hobbs said. “The attorney general, both Terry Goddard and Tom Horne, had been working to try to stop this abuse.”

Hobbs said that as Senate president, Biggs had control over what bills advanced to the floor for votes.

“You’re the one that makes those decisions. You assign it to committees. You can waive the rules … you can change the committee assignment. He stopped it from having a vote, and so his pretending he doesn’t remember the procedure is just wrong,” she said.

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