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Subscribe to RSSAfter a deliberating for less than an hour, a Texas jury found Wendell Loy Nielsen, a lieutenant of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, guilty of three counts of bigamy. He faces up to 10 years in prison for each count.
Nielsen was accused of marrying three women in 2006 when they were 43, 58 and 65.
Nielsen, 71, is one of a dozen men with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints charged with bigamy after the 2008 raid of the sect’s Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas. The sect, which has about 10,000 followers, broke off with the Mormon church in the 1880s over whether to ban polygamy.
Prosecutors said in opening arguments that Nielsen violated Texas bigamy laws because he lived with more than one woman and claimed to be married to them all. He allegedly had 35 wives, although he was charged with just three counts of bigamy.
The issue put to the jury of five women and seven men was whether “spiritual” or “celestial” marriages are true marriages under Texas law. Bigamy, rarely charged in the United States, is illegal in most western countries. Most cases involve someone marrying someone in the U.S., unaware that their marriage in a previous country was still valid.
Defense lawyer David Botsford said the state could not prove that celestial marriage violates the law, as usually only the first wife has a marriage license.
"Apply the law and the facts that the judge gives you,” Botsford said. “Those marriages are spiritual unions."
Of the dozen male members of the sect were charged, 10 were convicted including Warren Jeffs. Jeffs was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old he took in as a bride in what his church deemed a “spiritual marriage.” Ten of those men have been convicted.
Tony Gutierrez / AP
Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he took in as a bride.
Jeffs is now in protective custody at a prison in Palestine, Texas. He still exerts his authority and sends out prophetic messages to public officials. He has also taken out advertisements in newspapers throughout the country.
Nielsen had been the president of the sect’s corporation in Utah until Jeffs took over again in 2011.
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I have always been curious about something. In interviews of the 2008 raid, it was said that if a woman is non-compliant with the ways of the church, they were locked up in a sort of nut house, I believe they even showed a picture of the building, and no one went to investigate this allegation. So, I was always curious about that. The other thing is how these families could collect food stamps, etc. when they lived so well.
When an FLDS woman shows signs of rebellion the patriarchy has her committed with the help of her parents and friends. They also assign her children to other mothers, so she loses all parental rights. She is also humiliated and shunned by other members, so she better obey.
Welfare fraud is rampant among fundamentalist Mormon polygamists because no one in Utah and Arizona enforces the law. 99% of polygamists vote republican so republicans like polygamists. Also, powerful Mormon legislatures control Utah and Arizona, and polygamy is an embarrassment to the Mormon Church, so polygamy crimes are swept under the rug. The doc film Banking On Heaven tells it all!!! Some libraries carry it.
Jeffs was convicted of assaulting a 12 year old and got life + 20.
This man, Nielson, married adults. Not much of a crime, in comparrison.
Most people that stray from the herd are looked on as evil.
Humans are not herd animals.
In sociology I was once told, "Anything can be justified in society-even murder". I have always resisted completely believing that-until about the last 10 years or so. I don't know what to think anymore.
Sociology doesn't know how to solve social problems.
Any forced marriage or any so-called marriage involving minors should be prosecuted to the full extant of the law as child abuse. However-polygamy, polyandry, group marriage and same sex marriage? I don't see any moral harm in any activity between consenting ADULTS. Mostly it seems to be a legal problem for taxes, contracts and treatment of children in the event of a divorce. As long as they are civil unions, religions should butt out. Polygamy and possible polyandry are legal in many parts of the world now.
NotEven ...
Some live well, some don't. And the official forms filed to collect support contain the information necessary to maximize proceeds.
Here's the deal ...
Suppose you are a patriarch with twenty or thirty wives. The law looks at all but one of those wives as simply single mothers supporting a family. Now, if you keep all of them in one (or several) huge barn-like houses where maintenance is all done by the inmates and you feed them oatmeal, you can actually make a profit on an income that would be starvation-inducing to a single mother in an inner city slum. Add to this the income that can be made by renting out the hundred or so kids as child labor as soon as you can (or farming alfalfa and cows). You can live like a feudal lord after a while.
If you're ever in Southern Utah, you should drive through Colorado City. Have lunch in the town park up the canyon behind the town. (It's nice!) It's a real trip!!
By the way, news reports that mention Romney as a Mormon never fail to note that, "Mormons don't believe in polygamy anymore." Ummmm ... not quite. Polygamy is as much a part of the Mormon doctrine as it ever was. In the famous "Manifesto" that outlawed it for mainstream Mormons, the only thing then Mormon President Woodruff said was that God told him Mormons had to start obeying earthly laws. The revelation that created polygamy is still intact and just waiting to be started up again. (Come to think of it, kinda like resetting an Etch-a-Sketch! hmmmmmm ...)
Obama (again!) is a master etch-a-sketch artist.
Nielson did not harm anyone. This seems like Salem, 17th century.
This is just the first step in a multi-tiered process which will eventually overturn the bigamy and anti-polygamy laws as unconstitutional (which they are). Just as interracial marriage and gay marriage were deemed illegal so to polygamy will soon be seen as a legitimate form of marriage. It will take an appeal or two, but eventually when it gets to the Federal Court there will not be much of a fight that can be put up to keep the current laws on the books.
Thank you Wendell for fighting the fight. Liberty and justice for all.
The Mormon Church and her followers should raise millions and fight hard to abolish fundamentalist Mormon polygamous sects, like they raised millions and fought hard to abolish Prop 8. Anyone who's seen the doc film Banking On Heaven knows there are hundreds of abusive polygamous sects in Utah, like the FLDS. So why isn't anyone in Utah doing anything about it?