VOLUME 7 |ISSUE 3 |2016 3731
a lower court, essentially dismissing it. The effect means that,
for now, polygamy once again is a felony in Utah. The Brown
family’s lawyer said in a statement that they were considering
their options—including an appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court. ...Kody Brown and his wives, Meri, Christine, Janelle
and Robyn, filed a lawsuit against the state challenging its
historic ban on polygamy (Utah abandoned the practice of
plural marriage as a condition of statehood). They argued that
it violated their right to privacy and freedom of religion. The
family found itself under investigation in 2011 by Lehi police
when they began appearing on their TLC reality-TV show Sister
Wives. In 2012, the Utah County Attorney claimed he would
not prosecute the Browns for polygamy alone—unless there
was evidence of other crimes like abuse or fraud. ...The case
has been sent back to the federal court in Salt Lake City where
it is expected to be dismissed, unless the Browns appeal.” (Fox
13, 04/11/16)
Former child bride, polygamous trust settle lawsuit for
$2.75M
“Former child bride Elissa Wall has reached a $2.75 million
settlement with the United Effort Plan [UEP], the trust that
oversees homes and other real estate in the polygamous
border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz[ona].
Wall, who originally filed her lawsuit under the moniker ‘MJ’
because she was a juvenile when she was forced to marry, will
receive a mix of cash and property. ...On March 23, the Utah
Supreme Court ruled that the UEP—now a charitable trust
under management independent from the FLDS—could be
held liable for Jeffs’ role in forcing Wall to marry. The justices
then sent the case back to Salt Lake County’s 3rd District
Court, where the settlement occurred. In 2001, Jeffs was head
of the UEP and Wall’s attorneys argued that he was acting
in his capacity as trustee of the UEP when he forced her to
wed her 19-year-old cousin that year. ...Attorneys for the
UEP unsuccessfully countered that ordering a marriage to an
underage girl is so far outside the bounds of Jeffs’ duties as
trustee that the trust cannot be liable.” (The Salt Lake Tribune,
05/06/16)
“Nearly 200 children from a polygamous sect had to work long
hours in the cold, sometimes with little food, as they picked
pecans for a Utah contracting company with ties to the group,
a federal judge found in a decision that marks the latest blow
to the group. U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell held Paragon
Contractors in contempt of court, siding with federal labor
lawyers who said kids as young as 6 were sent to the harvest.
The government said the company had deep connections to
the sect led by Warren Jeffs and was under pressure to make
money for its leaders before it used 1,400 workers, including
175 children, as unpaid labor. Paragon denied that, saying
families from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints [FLDS] volunteered to pick up fallen nuts
in the city of Hurricane. ...Sect members believe polygamy
brings exaltation in heaven. It is a legacy of the early teachings
of the Mormon church, but the mainstream faith abandoned
the practice more than [a] century ago.” (ABC News, 06/02/16)
Feds call for judge to disband police in polygamous towns
“The police department should be disbanded in polygamous
towns on the Utah-Arizona border found guilty of violating
the constitutional rights of nonbelievers, the federal
government recommended Friday in a new court filing.
...The government is also asking a judge to assign an
independent monitor to watch over municipal staff in
Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, and have access
to city meetings and documents.” (ABC News, 04/29/16)
Accused polygamist Winston Blackmore loses latest court
appeal
In the latest legal decision in a years-long polygamy battle,
British Columbia’s (B.C.’s) “highest court has upheld the
appointment of special prosecutor Peter Wilson and the
decision by Wilson to file polygamy charges against Winston
Blackmore. Wilson, the third special prosecutor appointed in
the case, decided in August 2014 to [once again] file charges
against Blackmore, a leader of the Bountiful community in
southeastern B.C. ...[The] court heard that allegations first
surfaced in the early 1990s that individuals were practicing
polygamy in the small community of Bountiful, near Creston.
RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] conducted an
investigation and forwarded a report to Crown counsel, with
the Crown declining to approve charges.
Further allegations were investigated in the early 2000s, with
the result that once again charges were not laid by the Crown.
[First special prosecutor Richard] Peck was appointed in 2007
and decided not to file charges, expressing a preference
that a ruling on the constitutional validity of polygamy laws
be obtained. The following year, Terrence Robertson was
appointed as the second special prosecutor. In January 2009,
Robertson approved charges against Blackmore, who went to
court and challenged that decision. The B.C. Supreme Court
[at that time] found the attorney-general had no jurisdiction
to appoint Robertson and quashed that appointment and his
decision to approve charges.” (The Province, 06/01/16)
Polygamous leader Lyle Jeffs has a network of hiding spots
“Rachel Jeffs didn’t even know where she was living.
Somewhere in Idaho is all she knew. ...She and the other
women there were not allowed to leave, Jeffs said, or even
to go outside during daylight. ‘We could go outside at night
on the deck and stuff, but not during the day,’ Jeffs said. ‘And
we were supposed to sew—everybody—and stay in the
house and clean and make meals.’ Jeffs was living in what the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
[FLDS] calls a ‘house of hiding.’ Her caretaker there, she said in
an interview Wednesday, was her uncle—Lyle Jeffs. Former
FLDS followers suspect he is now living in such a house—
somewhere. The house of hiding network was one reason
federal prosecutors asked Lyle be kept in jail pending his trial
in October on two counts related to food stamp fraud. U.S.
District Court Judge Ted Stewart released Lyle from jail earlier
a lower court, essentially dismissing it. The effect means that,
for now, polygamy once again is a felony in Utah. The Brown
family’s lawyer said in a statement that they were considering
their options—including an appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court. ...Kody Brown and his wives, Meri, Christine, Janelle
and Robyn, filed a lawsuit against the state challenging its
historic ban on polygamy (Utah abandoned the practice of
plural marriage as a condition of statehood). They argued that
it violated their right to privacy and freedom of religion. The
family found itself under investigation in 2011 by Lehi police
when they began appearing on their TLC reality-TV show Sister
Wives. In 2012, the Utah County Attorney claimed he would
not prosecute the Browns for polygamy alone—unless there
was evidence of other crimes like abuse or fraud. ...The case
has been sent back to the federal court in Salt Lake City where
it is expected to be dismissed, unless the Browns appeal.” (Fox
13, 04/11/16)
Former child bride, polygamous trust settle lawsuit for
$2.75M
“Former child bride Elissa Wall has reached a $2.75 million
settlement with the United Effort Plan [UEP], the trust that
oversees homes and other real estate in the polygamous
border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz[ona].
Wall, who originally filed her lawsuit under the moniker ‘MJ’
because she was a juvenile when she was forced to marry, will
receive a mix of cash and property. ...On March 23, the Utah
Supreme Court ruled that the UEP—now a charitable trust
under management independent from the FLDS—could be
held liable for Jeffs’ role in forcing Wall to marry. The justices
then sent the case back to Salt Lake County’s 3rd District
Court, where the settlement occurred. In 2001, Jeffs was head
of the UEP and Wall’s attorneys argued that he was acting
in his capacity as trustee of the UEP when he forced her to
wed her 19-year-old cousin that year. ...Attorneys for the
UEP unsuccessfully countered that ordering a marriage to an
underage girl is so far outside the bounds of Jeffs’ duties as
trustee that the trust cannot be liable.” (The Salt Lake Tribune,
05/06/16)
“Nearly 200 children from a polygamous sect had to work long
hours in the cold, sometimes with little food, as they picked
pecans for a Utah contracting company with ties to the group,
a federal judge found in a decision that marks the latest blow
to the group. U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell held Paragon
Contractors in contempt of court, siding with federal labor
lawyers who said kids as young as 6 were sent to the harvest.
The government said the company had deep connections to
the sect led by Warren Jeffs and was under pressure to make
money for its leaders before it used 1,400 workers, including
175 children, as unpaid labor. Paragon denied that, saying
families from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints [FLDS] volunteered to pick up fallen nuts
in the city of Hurricane. ...Sect members believe polygamy
brings exaltation in heaven. It is a legacy of the early teachings
of the Mormon church, but the mainstream faith abandoned
the practice more than [a] century ago.” (ABC News, 06/02/16)
Feds call for judge to disband police in polygamous towns
“The police department should be disbanded in polygamous
towns on the Utah-Arizona border found guilty of violating
the constitutional rights of nonbelievers, the federal
government recommended Friday in a new court filing.
...The government is also asking a judge to assign an
independent monitor to watch over municipal staff in
Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, and have access
to city meetings and documents.” (ABC News, 04/29/16)
Accused polygamist Winston Blackmore loses latest court
appeal
In the latest legal decision in a years-long polygamy battle,
British Columbia’s (B.C.’s) “highest court has upheld the
appointment of special prosecutor Peter Wilson and the
decision by Wilson to file polygamy charges against Winston
Blackmore. Wilson, the third special prosecutor appointed in
the case, decided in August 2014 to [once again] file charges
against Blackmore, a leader of the Bountiful community in
southeastern B.C. ...[The] court heard that allegations first
surfaced in the early 1990s that individuals were practicing
polygamy in the small community of Bountiful, near Creston.
RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] conducted an
investigation and forwarded a report to Crown counsel, with
the Crown declining to approve charges.
Further allegations were investigated in the early 2000s, with
the result that once again charges were not laid by the Crown.
[First special prosecutor Richard] Peck was appointed in 2007
and decided not to file charges, expressing a preference
that a ruling on the constitutional validity of polygamy laws
be obtained. The following year, Terrence Robertson was
appointed as the second special prosecutor. In January 2009,
Robertson approved charges against Blackmore, who went to
court and challenged that decision. The B.C. Supreme Court
[at that time] found the attorney-general had no jurisdiction
to appoint Robertson and quashed that appointment and his
decision to approve charges.” (The Province, 06/01/16)
Polygamous leader Lyle Jeffs has a network of hiding spots
“Rachel Jeffs didn’t even know where she was living.
Somewhere in Idaho is all she knew. ...She and the other
women there were not allowed to leave, Jeffs said, or even
to go outside during daylight. ‘We could go outside at night
on the deck and stuff, but not during the day,’ Jeffs said. ‘And
we were supposed to sew—everybody—and stay in the
house and clean and make meals.’ Jeffs was living in what the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
[FLDS] calls a ‘house of hiding.’ Her caretaker there, she said in
an interview Wednesday, was her uncle—Lyle Jeffs. Former
FLDS followers suspect he is now living in such a house—
somewhere. The house of hiding network was one reason
federal prosecutors asked Lyle be kept in jail pending his trial
in October on two counts related to food stamp fraud. U.S.
District Court Judge Ted Stewart released Lyle from jail earlier
