Some Salt Lake Valley polygamists are accusing the state attorney general's "polygamy czar" of funeral-crashing.
Attorney General's Office investigator Ron Barton has attended at least two recent high-profile funerals for well-known members of Utah's polygamy hierarchy. Some are taking offense that a detective would seemingly be looking for clues at a sacred event.
Barton, they said, should have more decency.
"Yeah, I think it's a bit offensive for him to be at a funeral," said Mary Batchelor. "People shouldn't have to feel like they're in fear when they are at a private place like this."
Barton's official job is to investigate tax evasion, welfare fraud, child sexual abuse, domestic abuse and other crimes in "closed societies" such as tax-protest groups, white-supremacist organizations and polygamous sects.
Within the polygamous community he's known as the polygamy czar.
Two years ago when Barton was hired, Ron Miller, chief of the attorney general's investigations division, said Barton would have to walk a fine line between aggressively investigating criminal complaints and maintaining ties with people inside the insulated communities who are willing to talk.
"It's going to be tough, even in the best case," Miller said then. "If we go into this with a real heavy-footed approach, those sources of information are going to close up."
Paul Murphy, spokesman for the attorney general, said many polygamist leaders are cordial with Barton because they don't want child abuse, domestic violence or fraud going on within their communities. Barton is seen as someone who can rid polygamous communities of these blights, Murphy said.
Anne Wilde, widow of polygamist icon Ogden Kraut, welcomed Barton to her husband's funeral.
"He showed up at (Kraut's) funeral out of respect," Murphy said.
Davis County resident Dennis Bingham, who shares Kraut's beliefs but has only one wife, is skeptical.
"If he respects fundamentalists, then why is he going around investigating them?" Bingham asked. "I'm a longtime friend of Ogden Kraut, and Ron Barton was never a friend of Ogden Kraut."
Bingham said Barton was going to the funeral to intimidate other polygamists.
There was no information Barton could have gained at the funeral that couldn't have been accessed somewhere else, Murphy said.
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com