Marty and Jen Mechaley are the Custer County Chronicle Citizens of the Year

It was the right thing to do.
Those were the words of Jen Mechaley, explaining why she and her husband, Custer County Sheriff Marty Mechaley, decided to take on the momentous task of helping free several girls and women from the grip of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
We couldn’t agree more.
What’s also the right thing to do? Honor the Mechaleys for their kindness and selflessness for not only helping the Jeffs, but being an overall asset to Custer County.
So, for those reasons—and many more, really—Marty and Jen Mechaley have been named the Custer County Chronicle’s Citizens of the year for 2022.
The Mechaleys sacrificed greatly to help the girls, most of whom are daughters of Warren Jeffs, to escape the church. It started with the girls’ request to enlist Marty’s help in gaining property back from the former FLDS compound and blossomed into a friendship that culminated with all of the girls living at his and Jen’s home for a while at some point. Marty and Jen became not only friends to the girls, but also mentors and confidants, and they spent a great deal of time and their own money picking up the girls, helping the girls and showing the girls the world outside the walls of the FLDS. They asked for no recognition or pay, doing it only out of the kindness of their heart and a desire to help people in need.
The Mechaleys had helped the girls to escape and move out on their own and begin prosperous lives for months before the story ever became public. With their help, the girls went from native, shy girls who didn’t know how a car radio worked to confident, productive citizens who are working jobs, attending college and starting families of their own. Most importantly, those families are with men they have chosen for themselves.
The girls have expressed in previous stories how much the Mechaleys meant to them—and continue to mean to them—as they left the FLDS.
Jaska Jeffs said in June she has no doubt the girls “acted weird” around the Mechaleys when they first started to visit them, but they loved how accepting the Mechaleys were of them—weirdness and naivety and all. In fact, she said, that was her favorite part of the visits. The girls didn’t have to be perfect and didn’t have constant stress.
“We could just be ourselves,” she said. “They were the first people I felt actually cared about us and wanted to help us. They were the first ones we actually talked to.”
“They were really nice,” said Hannah (Jeffs) Barlow of the Mechaleys, recalling in a previous story when they began to get to know them. “I was like, ‘you know, these people are really decent.’ That started opening a window of me wanting to leave. Before that I wanted to leave; I just didn’t know if I would find anything.”
Tonia Tewell of Holding out HELP, a Utah organization that focuses on providing full-service care to people coming from a polygamous background, heaps praise on the Mechaleys and what they did to help the girls escape the clutches of the FLDS.
“Marty and Jen are some of the most down-to-earth, caring individuals I know. When I got the call from Marty after Warren Jeffs’ daughters landed on his doorstep, I realized within about 10 minutes that he and Jen had it handled and would support these girls in a healthy way,” Tewell said. “They understood unconditional love, service, empowerment and free will. The best part was that their hearts were genuine and they truly cared about what happened to these girls. I can’t think of anyone better for this award and a better representative on earth serving as the hands and feet of Christ.”
Marty’s former boss, former Custer County Sheriff Rick Wheeler, said when he became sheriff he was full of anxiety and depended on others for help, those like Marty who had been in law enforcement much longer than he had.
“I asked Marty to be my chief deputy early on and instilled in him what direction I wanted our department to go,” Wheeler said. “I wanted our citizens to trust us, to feel comfortable coming to the office with their concerns. I’m sure he thought I was a little easy-going and with his background and his experience I was sure we would be a good mix.”
Wheeler said Marty proved to be a great asset to the department and showed compassion in so many ways, which is so import in the law enforcement field.
“This all came to light when Marty and Jen helped the FLDS girls integrate into society, which was a journey in itself,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler said when he was ready to retire, he asked the county commission to appoint Marty to finish out his term, which the commission agreed to do.
“I felt he was dedicated to law enforcement, trustworthy, a good family man and he would bring those traits to the citizens of Custer County,” Wheeler said. “I am proud of Marty for his accomplishments as sheriff.”
Marty Mechaley still serves the county as its sheriff, working with his deputies to keep the community safe while always being mindful of taxpayer money. If there is money to be saved or turned back to the county’s general fund, he always finds a way to do so.
“I feel very comfortable  with Marty. He is probably the most proficient with money. He keeps tremendous records,” Custer County Commission chairman Jim Lintz said. “If there is an issue that comes up, he has it logged. He is just very professional about everything.
“He has saved the county so much money by the way he has been operating things. The money we used to spend on jail we don’t spend anymore is tremendous. I have been very pleased with the work he has done and pleased with his department. I don’t receive any complaints about the sheriff’s office.”
In his role as sheriff Marty is also a ubiquitous presence in the community, from passing out Halloween candy in costume, to assisting at parades, to attending community and school functions.
“I’m glad I had the opportunity to help. I don’t think this has been done before,” Marty said in a previous interview about helping the girls leave the FLDS. “It’s a blessing we were able to help. We’ve changed some lives. They might have been there for God knows how long. Now they are able to get on with their lives.”
They were such kind spirits, Jen said at the time, you couldn’t help but want to help them.
The main reason the two got involved, however, is perhaps the most obvious.
“It was the right thing to do,” Jen said.
Spoken like a Citizen of the Year.