NEPHI, Utah (Reuters) - Avowed Utah polygamist Tom Green, serving a prison sentence for being married to five women at the same time, appeared in court on Friday on a charge of raping a minor, a woman he married when she was 13.
Green, who has 29 children, entered the courtroom in shackles, waving to two of his wives and kissing one of them.
Green is charged with raping Linda Kunz in 1986 when she was 13 and he was 37. They later had a child and much of the day's hearings focused on trying to determine where the child was conceived.
The defense argues the child was conceived in Mexico where Green married the teen-ager. If that is true the rape charge, which stems from the local county prosecutor's polygamy case, would have to be dismissed.
The prosecution tried to show the baby was conceived in Utah, where polygamy once thrived among Mormon pioneers and, anti-polygamy groups say, is still practiced in rural areas.
The defense has said authorities knew about the marriages, but did nothing until Green spoke publicly about his life.
Kunz, now Linda Green, said she was not a victim of a crime. "I wanted to be married to Green and I chose him and I still want to be his wife. I do not feel like I'm a victim of a crime," she told reporters outside the courthouse.
The case of Green, who has appeared on national television programs talking about having more than one wife and life on a remote compound in Utah, has put the spotlight on polygamy.
Anti-polygamy groups say many people in rural Utah practice plural marriage, believing it adheres to the original guidance of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- commonly called the Mormon church. Green holds such a belief.
Polygamy was originally encouraged by Mormons, who settled in the Utah territory after fleeing religious persecution. But the church banned the practice in 1890 to win full statehood in the United States for Utah, where it now has a base for its fast-growing, worldwide religion.
It is difficult to estimate how many polygamous marriages exist in the United States because of the secrecy of adherents to the practice, but anti-polygamists say there could be tens of thousands of people involved.
Green was found guilty of polygamy last May and sentenced to prison for up to five years. He has been in jail since then.
No decisions were made in Friday's all-day hearing, which was expected to resume on May 10. He is scheduled to go on trial on June 24.