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Members of Utah's polygamous communities want to see their lifestyle decriminalized. But it appears prosecutors are reluctant to take any such case to court.
During a conference Friday on polygamy and the law, representatives from the Utah Attorney General's Office, defense attorneys and pro-polygamy activists met at Snowbird to talk about decriminalization and other issues.
Christine Brown, a plural wife and member of the Bluffdale-based Apostolic United Brethren, said she was not afraid to sit in the same room as Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
"It doesn't make me nervous at all because the attorney general, he specifically says as long as there are no child-bride marriages, as long as there's no child abuse, he's not going to prosecute," she told Fox 13 News.
That's the problem, pro-polygamy activists say. The Utah Attorney General's Office has declined to prosecute a case of polygamy alone, citing resource issues of building prisons for tens of thousands of polygamists and creating an enormous burden on the welfare system to care for their wives and children.
"For the last 10 years, we've stated that when it's truly consensual adults, that our limited resources, it wouldn't make much sense to go after those kind of cases," said Kirk Torgensen, the chief deputy Utah Attorney General.
Instead, prosecutors have followed Shurtleff's advice in going after crimes within polygamy -- including child-bride marriages, abuse, and fraud. They have only charged bigamy in conjunction with other crimes. A number of men have been convicted, including Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving a pair of 5-to-life sentences for rape as an accomplice for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.
Many churches have denounced underage marriages, and Shurtleff told the conference again to urge their members and leaders to abandon the practice and turn in those who are doing it. After the raid on the FLDS Church's Yearning for Zion ranch in Texas, the polygamous sect issued a statement saying it would no longer condone such marriages.
"We've said it, we've stuck with it, we're sticking with that," Willie Jessop, an FLDS member who acts as a spokesman, told Fox 13 News. "There's been no violations of that. I don't expect that there will be."
According to a new census put out by the pro-polygamy group Principle Voices, there are an estimated 38,000 people who consider themselves "Fundamentalist Mormons." It is a term given to those who subscribe to a brand of Mormon theology founded by Joseph Smith, that includes polygamy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints no longer practices polygamy and excommunications those who do. The LDS Church has taken issue with the term, but those who practice it believe they are just as the term states.
Principle Voices broke down the unofficial census by group. The largest number -- 15,000 -- are "independents" who have no central leader. The FLDS Church reports 10,000 members; about 7,500 belong to the AUB; 2,000 are members of the Centennial Park community on the Utah- Arizona border; another 2,000 are members of the Davis County Cooperative Society (also known as the Kingston group); and 1,500 were listed on the census as "others."
Pro-polygamy activists want to see bigamy, at least among consenting adults, decriminalized.
"If adults have chosen this lifestyle for themselves and it's all about creating families and there's no underage marriages or abuse, I see no reason why it can't be decriminalized or legalized," said Anne Wilde, one of the founders Principle Voices, which sponsored Friday's conference.
But because prosecutors won't charge bigamy as a crime itself, polygamists can't get a court challenge on religious freedom grounds. Past appeals of Utah's polygamy ban and similar laws prohibiting plural marriage have failed in part, because the alleged victims in the cases were minors.
Torgensen said it is not the attorney general's role to help push a case of polygamy among consenting adults forward.
"Because of that, we're stuck," said Brown.
"So you want to be charged, in a way?" she was asked by Fox 13's Ben Winslow.
"Bring it on," Brown replied. "Kind of. We need a test case. We need it decriminalized. People need to see that there are families out there that would be a good representation of the plural communities and we just live our lives like everybody else and that's the only law we break."
FOX 13's Ben Winslow reports.
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During a conference Friday on polygamy and the law, representatives from the Utah Attorney General's Office, defense attorneys and pro-polygamy activists met at Snowbird to talk about decriminalization and other issues.
Christine Brown, a plural wife and member of the Bluffdale-based Apostolic United Brethren, said she was not afraid to sit in the same room as Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
"It doesn't make me nervous at all because the attorney general, he specifically says as long as there are no child-bride marriages, as long as there's no child abuse, he's not going to prosecute," she told Fox 13 News.
That's the problem, pro-polygamy activists say. The Utah Attorney General's Office has declined to prosecute a case of polygamy alone, citing resource issues of building prisons for tens of thousands of polygamists and creating an enormous burden on the welfare system to care for their wives and children.
"For the last 10 years, we've stated that when it's truly consensual adults, that our limited resources, it wouldn't make much sense to go after those kind of cases," said Kirk Torgensen, the chief deputy Utah Attorney General.
Instead, prosecutors have followed Shurtleff's advice in going after crimes within polygamy -- including child-bride marriages, abuse, and fraud. They have only charged bigamy in conjunction with other crimes. A number of men have been convicted, including Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving a pair of 5-to-life sentences for rape as an accomplice for performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin.
Many churches have denounced underage marriages, and Shurtleff told the conference again to urge their members and leaders to abandon the practice and turn in those who are doing it. After the raid on the FLDS Church's Yearning for Zion ranch in Texas, the polygamous sect issued a statement saying it would no longer condone such marriages.
"We've said it, we've stuck with it, we're sticking with that," Willie Jessop, an FLDS member who acts as a spokesman, told Fox 13 News. "There's been no violations of that. I don't expect that there will be."
According to a new census put out by the pro-polygamy group Principle Voices, there are an estimated 38,000 people who consider themselves "Fundamentalist Mormons." It is a term given to those who subscribe to a brand of Mormon theology founded by Joseph Smith, that includes polygamy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints no longer practices polygamy and excommunications those who do. The LDS Church has taken issue with the term, but those who practice it believe they are just as the term states.
Principle Voices broke down the unofficial census by group. The largest number -- 15,000 -- are "independents" who have no central leader. The FLDS Church reports 10,000 members; about 7,500 belong to the AUB; 2,000 are members of the Centennial Park community on the Utah- Arizona border; another 2,000 are members of the Davis County Cooperative Society (also known as the Kingston group); and 1,500 were listed on the census as "others."
Pro-polygamy activists want to see bigamy, at least among consenting adults, decriminalized.
"If adults have chosen this lifestyle for themselves and it's all about creating families and there's no underage marriages or abuse, I see no reason why it can't be decriminalized or legalized," said Anne Wilde, one of the founders Principle Voices, which sponsored Friday's conference.
But because prosecutors won't charge bigamy as a crime itself, polygamists can't get a court challenge on religious freedom grounds. Past appeals of Utah's polygamy ban and similar laws prohibiting plural marriage have failed in part, because the alleged victims in the cases were minors.
Torgensen said it is not the attorney general's role to help push a case of polygamy among consenting adults forward.
"Because of that, we're stuck," said Brown.
"So you want to be charged, in a way?" she was asked by Fox 13's Ben Winslow.
"Bring it on," Brown replied. "Kind of. We need a test case. We need it decriminalized. People need to see that there are families out there that would be a good representation of the plural communities and we just live our lives like everybody else and that's the only law we break."
FOX 13's Ben Winslow reports.
SEND US YOUR NEWS, WEATHER AND SPORTS PICTURES! www.fox13now.com/pics
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! @fox13now
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