Posted on 06/12/2005 6:02:40 AM PDT by Graybeard58
PHOENIX -- The leader of a polygamous sect has been charged with sex crimes for allegedly arranging a marriage between a teenage girl and a 28-year-old man who was already married, prosecutors said.
Warren Jeffs, president of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was charged with counts that include conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor, prosecutors said Friday. If convicted, he could face up to two years in jail.
Jeffs, 49, didn't have sex with the 16-year-old girl but arranged her marriage to the man, said Matthew Smith, the attorney for Mohave County, Ariz.
Authorities do not know where Jeffs is and were hoping the release of his name would help result in his arrest. Jeffs has not been seen publicly in more than a year and is thought by some to be in Texas on a new church ranch.
"He's going to be held accountable for the charges. That's the bottom line," Utah Attorney General Shurtleff said. "This sends a message that Warren Jeffs is not above the law."
Polygamy is illegal, but it is believed that tens of thousands of Mormon fundamentalists and others across the West continue the practice. Polygamy is practiced openly in Colorado City, a remote enclave in Arizona on the state line with Utah that is dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Polygamy also is practiced in Hildale, Utah, across the state line from Colorado City.
The fundamentalist sect split from mainstream Mormonism after the broader church renounced polygamy more than a century ago. The fundamentalist group touts that men must have at least three wives to reach heaven.
The married man was not identified. He is expected to be charged with two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual conduct with a minor.
Messages left with Rod Parker and R. Scott Barry, attorneys who have represented Jeffs and the church in the past, were not immediately returned Friday afternoon.
Shurtleff's office has brought the church under increasing scrutiny amid allegations of sexual abuse, forced marriages and welfare fraud. Utah has also prosecuted a police officer for bigamy for having two wives.
Jeffs also is the subject of several other civil complaints filed by residents of Hildale and Colorado City. Shurtleff said his office has tried for two weeks to serve Jeffs with a court order showing the state can take temporary control of the church's trust fund.
Rowenna Erickson, co-founder of the anti-polygamy group Tapestry Against Polygamy, cheered the ruling Friday when reached by phone at her Salt Lake City home.
"Hallelujah. Now if they can just get him," Erickson said. "I truly believe it will ripple on back up to Utah, and affect what can happen to these groups."
Colorado City is 370 miles north of Phoenix.
This is a nice one to clip and send to the Lefties in your life.
The laws that now base marriage on who/what you have sex with (for example allowing two men to marry because they are busy driving the dirt road) must allow this marriage. The thousands of years old standards of marriage, the Bible, have now been thrown out. Marriage is now an arbitrarily based institution. This marriage is certainly arbitrary enough.
How can you legally be a bigamist? I mean you can legally marry one wife. If you try to get a marriage license for another, won't something come up in the "system"? Therefore they woudl just marry the 2nd (and subsequent) wives in some kind of ceremony, but that would not be legal. How could that then be bigamy? I mean a guy can live with as many women as he wants (who want to live with him)...
??????
P.S. I feel so sorry for the women and children in situations like these. Being part of a harem. God have mercy on us.
Q. What's the penalty for bigamy in Arizona?
A. Having two wives.
You're a riot!
NO. Having two MOTHER-IN-LAWS!!!!!!!!!
Thousands of years of standards from the Bible?
That's where the polygamists got their ideas in the first place: Abraham had more than one wife, as did his grandson Jacob. David and Solomon had many wives and concubines.
That is coming - soon.
There are a lot of biblical fundamentalists in this country, who seem not to have read it. I see no profit in pointing it out - if they are silly enough to take up an argument based on ignorance, I doubt that they are worth educating.
Polygamy is evil.
I wouldnt mind having 3 wives. A 40 year old to do the cooking, a 30 year old to do the cleaning and an 18 year old for fun. Better yet, I'd like to have a cult of 18 year olds.
Wasn't it W.C. Fields who once said "I'd rather have two girls at 21 each,than one girl at 42" ?
I want to know how these polygamists sects keep their men happy who don't get a wife.
"Sorry, Jake, Bob, Harold, Tom and Fred- I know you were hoping to marry the 5 wives I kept for myself, but here's a Penthouse magazine and some hand lotion- knock yourself out."
Why bother doing it legally, then? Why bother with marriage at all? Just get your harem....
There is no benefit legally in having more than one "legal" wife is what I am saying...
A. Having two wives.
NO. Having two MOTHER-IN-LAWS!!!!!!!
You could avoid that problem by marrying sisters!!!
The article is a little off in describing Hillsdale and Colorado City as two towns or merely being dominated by that sect. Drive though and it is not obvious that that there are two towns. Although it may be two towns in a legal sense, it is one town and all the land is owned by that religious sect.
There are sheep in them thar' hills!
But seriously, that is a good question, and when we figure it out we should tell the Chinese. They are going to have a bumper-crop of mateless males in a couple of years.
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