The chief marshal in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., suffered a broken leg trying to arrest a domestic violence suspect this week.
Chief Marshal Robb Radley, 48, broke both bones in his left leg Monday, Hildale Mayor Donia Jessop said Thursday. Jessop said Radley was in surgery on Thursday and expects to be immobilized for a few weeks.
Hildale and Colorado City share police services. The injury happened Monday afternoon when marshals were responding to a domestic violence call near 400 Edson Ave. in Colorado City, according to a news release from the marshals office.
About 1 p.m., marshals arrived at a home to discover the 41-year-old suspect had fled. He then was spotted at an intersection two blocks away. The news release said the suspect began to assault a marshal who tried to arrest him.
It took three marshals to take the man into custody.
“During this arrest process," the news release said, “Chief Radley sustained a serious injury to his left leg.”
An ambulance drove Radley to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George.
Mohave County (Ariz.) County Attorney Matt Smith on Thursday said his office was reviewing possible charges against the suspect.
Colorado City and Hildale, collectively, known as Short Creek, are the longtime home of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. After a federal jury in 2016 found the two municipal governments discriminated against people out of favor with the faith, a judge ordered changes.
Those changes, along with demographic shifts on the Hildale side, helped bring a more secular marshals office. Radley, who used to work as a police officer in the southwestern Utah town of Washington before joining Hildale and Colorado City as a deputy marshal, was promoted and sworn in as chief marshal last month.
“He’s befriended the community," Jessop said. "He’s continued to build that bridge between Colorado City and Hildale.”
