A polygamous leader accused of taking more than 20 wives, including underage girls, pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and tampering with evidence charges stemming from a federal investigation into his community on the Utah-Arizona border.

The leader of a small polygamous group near the Arizona-Utah border had taken at least 20 wives, most of them minors, and punished followers who did not treat him as a prophet, newly filed federal court documents allege.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A leader of a small polygamous group on the Arizona-Utah line pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges of tampering with evidence, weeks after being stopped on a highway with young girls in an enclosed trailer.

A federal appeals court has upheld the conclusion of a judge and jury that officials of Colorado City unconstitutionally used their power to discriminate against those who were not members of a certain religious sect.

Nearly 200 children from a polygamous sect had to work long hours in the cold, sometimes with little food, as they picked pecans for a Utah contracting company with ties to the group, a federal judge found in a decision that marks the latest blow to the group.

Two polygamous towns in Arizona and Utah violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic services such as police protection, building permits and water hookups, a jury said Monday.

Mohave County's sheriff says he'll cast a critical eye on a polygamous community on the Arizona-Utah line.

The Attorney General’s Office said it will continue funding patrols by Mohave County deputies of the polygamous enclave of Colorado City, despite Gov. Jan Brewer’s decision to line-item veto a $500,000 appropriation for those patrols.

The issue of exactly when the U.S. Department of Justice learned of an alleged pattern of housing discrimination against non-members of Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect is the focal point of the latest development in a civil rights lawsuit aimed at polygamous towns on the Arizona-Utah border.

The House passed a new version on March 6 of a bill stimulated by corruption in Colorado City.