Four years ago, teenager Ruth Stubbs was warned by her religious leaders that she would "burn in hell" if she refused to marry a southern Utah police officer twice her age, her Arizona attorney said Tuesday.
Bill Walker told The Salt Lake Tribune the then-16-year-old girl was coerced into becoming Rodney Holm's third wife by Rulon Jeffs, the late leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).
"The prophet ordered her to marry Rod," Walker said. "She was told that her salvation would depend on it."
Holm, 36, who has up to 21 children with three women, was charged last week by the Utah a ttorney g eneral with felony bigamy and three counts of unlawful sex with Stubbs, whom he took as his third plural wife in a "spiritual" ceremony when he was 32.
Under Utah law, it is a third-degree felony for a person who is 10 or more years older to have sex with a 16- or 17-year-old, unless they are lawfully married. Bigamy also is a third-degree felony that carries a sentence of up to 5 years in prison.
Stubbs' sister, Suzie Stubbs Holm, 36, also was charged with bigamy and unlawful sex for allegedly aiding and abetting the relationship between Holm and Stubbs, who is her younger sister. Both Holms are scheduled to surrender to authorities and make their first court appearance Friday in 5th District Court in St. George.
In a deposition taken during a recently settled custody dispute, Holm stipulated that he is the father of Stubbs' three children. Stubbs is now 20.
Holm's Salt Lake City attorney, Rod Parker, denies Stubbs was forced into marriage. In fact, Parker says, after Stubbs had early reservations about the union, it was Stubbs who asked Holm to marry her.
"Rodney told her, 'I don't want to marry you if it's not your choice,' " Parker said. Then, about two weeks later, "She asked him to marry her. They had further discussions about whether that's what she really wanted and then he consented when he was sure."
Holm claims the prosecution is an example of government-sponsored religious persecution.
" True Mormons have always been persecuted for what they believe, and this is just legalized persecution," Holm told The Arizona Republic. "I'm thankful and glad to stand up for what I believe."
Some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practiced polygamy until 1890, when LDS President Wilford Woodruff issued a manifesto ending it. The practice had been a stumbling block to Utah's statehood. Today, members of the LDS Church who practice polygamy are excommunicated.
The FLDS Church, an offshoot of the LDS Church, is centered in two towns straddling the Utah-Arizona border: Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
Holm is a town marshal for both cities.
Walker argues the only victim in the prosecution is Stubbs. Holm "had sex with her when she was 16 and 17," he said. "She feels like she's a victim -- like she was his slave."
Generally, The Tribune does not name victims in sex-abuse cases. However, Stubbs' name had been widely reported -- in connection with the custody case -- before the criminal charges were filed against the Holms. Her attorney said Tuesday she does not object to the continued publication of her name.
Stubbs has been living in Phoenix with an older sister who fled an arranged polygamous union years ago, Walker said.
She is moving to St. George to pursue a high-school diploma, he said.
In a handwritten letter filed in the custody case, Stubbs wrote that she opposed a jail sentence for Holm.
Walker now says, however, that Holm pressured Stubbs to write the letter several weeks ago in the hope that he would not be charged. Walker said Stubbs "vacillates" from day to day whether she wants Holm and Suzie Stubbs Holm to be prosecuted.
"She has mixed feelings right now," Walker said. "Her sister and the father of her children have been charged with felonies. She's glad she didn't have to make the decision [to charge]."