A federal jury in Phoenix has awarded a family $5.2 million after agreeing it was discriminated against by a polygamous sect on the Arizona-Utah border.
 
The award was the result of a civil suit filed by Ronald Cooke and his family, claiming they were denied utility connections because they do not belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The Salt Lake City Tribune reports Cook said the family was denied the hook-up when they returned in 2008 to his boyhood town of Short Creek, a collective name for Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., towns for years dominated by the polygamous FLDS.

Lawyers for the towns argued the family had failed to fill out the paperwork properly. They say they’re considering an appeal of the jury’s decision.