PROVO, USA - The conviction of an avowed polygamist who lived with five women on a remote compound in western Utah may very well push other polygamists deeper underground, lawyers said on Saturday.
Tom Green, 52, was found guilty late on Friday of four counts of bigamy and one count of failure to pay child support and could go to prison for up to 25 years when he is sentenced on June 27.
Green's lawyer, John Bucher, conceded his client's undoing was probably the high profile stance he took, appearing on national television to talk about living with the five women and their 25 children.
"Green shot his mouth off. He stuck out like a sore thumb and that has resulted in this prosecution," Bucher said.
The verdict could force other families living quietly in polygamous situations to go even deeper underground. And that may be just what local leaders want as the state polishes its image ahead of staging the 2002 Winter Games in February.
"You've started a precedent. The other polygamists are very nervous about that," said Bill Morrison, a family attorney for Green who testified on his behalf. "A lot of county attorneys have some interest going after polygamists, where heretofore they haven't done that," Morrison said.
The case is believed to be the first brought against a polygamist in the United States in nearly 50 years and put the spotlight on Utah, where plural marriages once thrived among Mormon pioneers who settled here.
But the practice was banned in the early 1890s as a condition for Utah's statehood, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon Church is formally called, now excommunicates members who practice polygamy.
30,000 POLYGAMISTS
The conviction at least gives local politicians a chance to say polygamy is no longer tolerated in the state, although an estimated 30,000 people in Utah are in polygamous relationships. Unlike Green, most keep a low profile.
Juab County prosecutor David Leavitt said the guilty verdicts were based on a combination of Utah's bigamy laws, which prevent a man married to one women from marrying another; and the state's common law marriage statute, which says a marriage exists if people hold themselves out to be married.
The state argued that even though Green divorced the women on paper, the divorces were a sham because he continued to live with the women in a common-law marriage setting.
"We expect these laws to be enforced and when we have evidence to prove it (an infraction) we will prove it," said Leavitt, whose brother is Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt.
Green, who is free on bail, said he planned to appeal and has maintained he practices polygamy on religious grounds, and the practice should be protected under the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion.
The Green case stands in sharp contrast to the early 1950s when federal agents invaded a polygamous enclave on the Utah/Arizona border. The prosecution effort was abandoned amid concern over who would care for the wives and children.
Authorities contend polygamous families can only exist financially if they receive welfare, and that Green's family collected $54,000 in welfare payments.
The prosecution argued that Green married young women in their teens, divorced them, but continued to live with them while they collected welfare.
Three of Green's wives are pregnant and among the five are two sets of sisters.
Green was also charged with first-degree felony rape of a child for allegedly having sexual relations in 1986 with a 13- year-old girl, whom he married, an offense carrying a prison term of five years to life. No trial date has been set for the rape charge, which was severed from the four bigamy charges.
14:12 05-19-01
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