Colorado City official named in indictment

KINGMAN, Ariz. -- Colorado City Town Manager David Darger is the second public official named in a 30-count indictment alleging widespread misuse of public funds.

That Darger is the co-defendant of Fire District Chief Jacob Barlow became public Thursday when Darger's attorney, Colin Campbell, accepted service of the Aug. 4 indictment by a Mohave County grand jury in Kingman.

Barlow, 55, is charged with 27 counts of misuse of public monies and three counts of either participating or assisting in a criminal enterprise. Darger, 41, faces each of the three criminal enterprise-related counts but only nine of the others.

All of the counts involve misuse of Fire District funds or credit cards from February 2004 until April 2010, the indictment said. The counts for Darger involve his previous role as Fire District secretary-treasurer, not his general municipal administrative duties.

As a basis for warrants authorizing searches of fire stations and the residences of Darger and Barlow in April 2010, an affidavit said authorities were investigating questionable expenditures for travel, motels, furniture, computer equipment, groceries and candy.

The indictment earlier this month also alleged that the defendants were responsible for illegal transfers of large sums of money from the Fire District to traditional bank accounts that were used to finance illegal purchases.

The nine transfers in question involved amounts from $8,000 to $38,000.

Barlow's attorney, Mike Piccarreta, said earlier this week that any and all of the alleged illegal expenditures will be validated as legitimate Fire District purchases.

"We will present evidence that every dime was spent for, and on behalf of, the government entity," Piccarreta said.

Barlow and Darger are scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in Superior Court in Kingman on Tuesday.

The indictments come on the heels of a separate federal investigation of corruption in and around Colorado City.

Mohave County Sheriff Tom Sheahan and County Attorney Matt Smith said their offices have been working with federal officials who conducted interviews earlier this month in Colorado City and the neighboring community of Hildale, Utah.

Sheahan said the FBI and Department of Justice were investigating allegations of civil rights violations involving corruption. Both Sheahan and Smith said they are not at liberty to further discuss the probe.

Colorado City and Hildale have been of national media interest as home of a polygamous sect and some 6,000 followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Sect prophet Warren Jeffs, 55, was given a life prison sentence earlier this month after his convictions for sexually assaulting two underage girls in Texas.