A longtime member of a Salt Lake County polygamist group was charged Tuesday with four counts of child rape and three counts of sodomy on a child -- all first-degree felonies -- for allegedly having sex with his young stepdaughters.
Gustavo Galindo Palacios, 70, had sex with the two daughters of one of his wives over a five-year period beginning when the girls turned 8, according to charges in 3rd District Court. He was investigated after the older girl, now 14, recently reported the abuse, court records state.
Palacios has been excommunicated from the Bluffdale-based Apostolic United Brethren polygamist sect, the group's leader, Owen Allred, said in a letter to The Salt Lake Tribune.
"We will not tolerate this sinful behavior," Allred wrote.
Allred said the girls' mother also was excommunicated. The mother told police that she observed Palacios having sex with her daughters "on many occasions," the charging documents say. After years of the abuse, the mother eventually told Palacios to stop "because she was no longer comfortable about the sex act occurring."
-- Kevin Cantera