Kingman, USA - A judge denied a defense effort to overturn Arizona's constitutional ban on polygamy at a hearing for a Colorado City man charged with sex crimes stemming from his plural marriage with a minor.
David Romaine Bateman's challenges to the ban are not an issue in his trial because he isn't charged with polygamy, Mohave County Superior Court Judge James Chavez ruled in turning aside the motions.
Bateman is one of eight Colorado City men facing sex charges related to their marriages with girls younger than 18. They were already legally married to other women when they married the underaged girls, and Arizona law makes those marriages invalid.
Another defendant in the case, Randolph J. Barlow, 32, failed in a December effort to challenge the ban when the state dropped charges of having sex with a minor against him.
At a hearing Thursday, Bateman's lawyer argued that his client's right to a defense would be compromised if he couldn't raise the polygamy ban at trial because his religion advocated plural marriages.
Defense attorney Bruce Griffen also argued that because state law allows marriages of those 16 and 17 with a parent's permission, it is discriminatory to prosecute someone who does the same thing in a polygamous marriage.
Prosecutor Matt Smith said there is no discrimination because church members are allowed to legally marry someone under the age of 18 in a legally binding ceremony. He said the state doesn't legally recognize any marriage after the first as legally binding, and under FLDS rules only the first wife has legal rights.
Griffin also argued that Bateman wasn't being allowed to raise spousal privilege issues and the state had no right to interfere and apply moral codes to regulate marriages.
Chavez also turned aside those challenges and set a new court date in February for a pretrial status conference.
Bateman, Barlow and six other Colorado City men face sex charges related to their marriages with girls younger than 18. The other six men are being tried before a different judge.
All are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, centered in Colorado City and nearby Hildale, Utah. The sect splintered from the mainstream church and believes polygamy is a protected aspect of their religion.
The eight men were indicted in June and July. The Arizona attorney general's office worked with Mohave County prosecutors to obtain the indictments.
Church leader Warren Jeffs also was indicted in early June on counts including conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor. He remains a fugitive.
Capturing Jeffs is considered key to ending the turmoil in the two towns, where polygamist men marry one wife legally and then take other women as so-called spiritual wives.
In November, Jeffs' brother, Seth Steed Jeffs, 32, of Hildale was charged with one federal count of concealing his brother.