Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2006, Page 86
The Arizona Attorney General‘s office has issued a companion guide to Utah‘s Primer which
has a Safety Net Directory listing government agencies and non-profits, including Tapestry
Against Polygamy, that help abuse victims in polygamous societies. Both documents have
been posted on the Internet and a newsletter publicizing updates is to be sent to people in
the communities.
Kelly Fischer, 39, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints (FLDS), has been found guilty — by a Kingman, AZ, jury — of engaging in sex
with an underage girl whom he took as a plural wife. Prosecutors charged that he conspired
with FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, and the girl‘s mother, to arrange the courting and
marriage. Fischer was the first of eight FLDS men to be charged in similar cases. The girl‘s
mother had been ―re-assigned‖ by Jeffs to be Fischer‘s second wife in 1997 or 1998. The
daughter, who was then 13 or 14, would become Fischer‘s third wife. Mohave County
Attorney Matt Smith said: ―This case is not about polygamy. It is about underage sex
practices ...I think the jury is speaking for the fact that that is not something that should
be tolerated, no matter where it happens.‖ The jury‘s decision was based on the testimony
of two former FLDS members who spoke of the relationship they observed between Fischer
and the girl, and about the nature of relations between the sexes in the polygamous
community. Due to resistance in the FLDS community, neither the victim nor persons
allegedly involved in setting up the relationship testified. Fischer faces four months to two
years in prison on each of two counts, but he may be sentenced only to a year‘s probation.
Police in the FLDS towns of Hilldale, UT, and Colorado City, AZ, say a number of teenagers
disenchanted with the church are leaving, but ―they‘re underage and there‘s not much we
can do for them legally,‖ says Gary Engles, a special investigator for the Mohave County
Attorney‘s Office. The boys are similar to those thrown out of the towns last year [by
Warren Jeffs, because they threatened to compete with older men for wives]. They end up
in the nearby towns. Some stay with sympathetic relatives. But service providers cannot
help because the boys are minors and runaways who must, by law, be returned to their
families, although Utah recently passed a measure — drawn up to address the problem —
that allows 16- and 17-year-olds to petition the juvenile courts for emancipation from their
parents, which would make them eligible for direct social services. ..Elaine Taylor, who
works with the HOPE Organization, which is devoted to assisting people leaving polygamy,
says many runaways wait until they‘re adults before coming for help. ―There was a girl who
was living in the basement of another girl I was helping. She told me, ‗I was living in rags
and I couldn‘t tell you I was there.‘ It broke my heart,‖ Taylor said. A representative of the
Utah Department of Human Services said the agency would like the legislature to ―broaden
the scope of what we can do to help these kids. They‘re in dire need of assistance. Not just
from state agencies but from entire communities.‖
FLDS leader Warren Jeffs‘ younger brother, Seth, has been placed on probation for three
years and fined $2,500 for helping Warren elude authorities seeking to arrest him for
arranging marriages between older men and underage girls. Seth, who says he‘ll move to
Colorado, declared, ―I‘ve done all I can to remove myself from this situation.‖ With one legal
wife and one plural wife, Seth describes his marital situation as, ―living my religion,‖ while
his attorney remarked: ―How is it any different from being legally married and having a
mistress that he supports?‖ The attorney characterized Hilldale and Colorado City as ―an
environment of paranoia,‖ where the atmosphere is ―poisonous.‖ Residents reportedly no
longer hold church services or community events because of on-going scrutiny by the FBI
and local law enforcement.
Members of the Bountiful, British Columbia, branch of the FLDS have now paid taxes on
300 acres of church property held by the United Effort Planned Trust, the entity which owns
and controls property there as well as in the church‘s Utah and Arizona communities.
Accountant Bruce Wisan, appointed by a Utah court to supervise the mismanaged trust, has
The Arizona Attorney General‘s office has issued a companion guide to Utah‘s Primer which
has a Safety Net Directory listing government agencies and non-profits, including Tapestry
Against Polygamy, that help abuse victims in polygamous societies. Both documents have
been posted on the Internet and a newsletter publicizing updates is to be sent to people in
the communities.
Kelly Fischer, 39, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints (FLDS), has been found guilty — by a Kingman, AZ, jury — of engaging in sex
with an underage girl whom he took as a plural wife. Prosecutors charged that he conspired
with FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, and the girl‘s mother, to arrange the courting and
marriage. Fischer was the first of eight FLDS men to be charged in similar cases. The girl‘s
mother had been ―re-assigned‖ by Jeffs to be Fischer‘s second wife in 1997 or 1998. The
daughter, who was then 13 or 14, would become Fischer‘s third wife. Mohave County
Attorney Matt Smith said: ―This case is not about polygamy. It is about underage sex
practices ...I think the jury is speaking for the fact that that is not something that should
be tolerated, no matter where it happens.‖ The jury‘s decision was based on the testimony
of two former FLDS members who spoke of the relationship they observed between Fischer
and the girl, and about the nature of relations between the sexes in the polygamous
community. Due to resistance in the FLDS community, neither the victim nor persons
allegedly involved in setting up the relationship testified. Fischer faces four months to two
years in prison on each of two counts, but he may be sentenced only to a year‘s probation.
Police in the FLDS towns of Hilldale, UT, and Colorado City, AZ, say a number of teenagers
disenchanted with the church are leaving, but ―they‘re underage and there‘s not much we
can do for them legally,‖ says Gary Engles, a special investigator for the Mohave County
Attorney‘s Office. The boys are similar to those thrown out of the towns last year [by
Warren Jeffs, because they threatened to compete with older men for wives]. They end up
in the nearby towns. Some stay with sympathetic relatives. But service providers cannot
help because the boys are minors and runaways who must, by law, be returned to their
families, although Utah recently passed a measure — drawn up to address the problem —
that allows 16- and 17-year-olds to petition the juvenile courts for emancipation from their
parents, which would make them eligible for direct social services. ..Elaine Taylor, who
works with the HOPE Organization, which is devoted to assisting people leaving polygamy,
says many runaways wait until they‘re adults before coming for help. ―There was a girl who
was living in the basement of another girl I was helping. She told me, ‗I was living in rags
and I couldn‘t tell you I was there.‘ It broke my heart,‖ Taylor said. A representative of the
Utah Department of Human Services said the agency would like the legislature to ―broaden
the scope of what we can do to help these kids. They‘re in dire need of assistance. Not just
from state agencies but from entire communities.‖
FLDS leader Warren Jeffs‘ younger brother, Seth, has been placed on probation for three
years and fined $2,500 for helping Warren elude authorities seeking to arrest him for
arranging marriages between older men and underage girls. Seth, who says he‘ll move to
Colorado, declared, ―I‘ve done all I can to remove myself from this situation.‖ With one legal
wife and one plural wife, Seth describes his marital situation as, ―living my religion,‖ while
his attorney remarked: ―How is it any different from being legally married and having a
mistress that he supports?‖ The attorney characterized Hilldale and Colorado City as ―an
environment of paranoia,‖ where the atmosphere is ―poisonous.‖ Residents reportedly no
longer hold church services or community events because of on-going scrutiny by the FBI
and local law enforcement.
Members of the Bountiful, British Columbia, branch of the FLDS have now paid taxes on
300 acres of church property held by the United Effort Planned Trust, the entity which owns
and controls property there as well as in the church‘s Utah and Arizona communities.
Accountant Bruce Wisan, appointed by a Utah court to supervise the mismanaged trust, has
