A juvenile court judge has ruled that two children fathered by prominent polygamist John Daniel Kingston were abused and neglected.
Judge Andrew Valdez ruled late Thursday that an uncle and aunt who are not part of the polygamist Kingston clan will have temporary custody of the 13-year-old girl and the 15-year-old girl will be in a foster facility. Both girls will be able to visit their mother and siblings.
Valdez said the two girls, as well as their eight siblings, had been abused and neglected by their father and their mother had been negligent in protecting them.
Valdez said all 10 children of Kingston and Heidi Foster, who have gone by the surname of Foster, were entitled to be named Kingston and also were entitled to inheritance.
"The name is Kingston, sir, and they have a right to their own names," Valdez said.
He ordered Kingston to legally change the children's' names to the surname Kingston by Monday.
The two girls were taken from the home after they allegedly were threatened with beatings for getting their ears pierced. The girls have been in state custody for more than two months.
Valdez said he didn't "buy" more recent testimony by the 15-year-old that downplayed the earring incident. He said the fact she fled a confrontation at her father's office and told a gas station clerk at that time "my father was going to beat us," was closer to the event and likely more accurate.
In his closing arguments earlier Thursday, Kingston's attorney, Daniel Irvin, pointed to the differing testimony of the two girls, with the 13-year-old providing a much more grim picture of abuse that she said her mother and her siblings endured at Kingston's hands.
Irvin used that in an attempt to discredit the younger girls' testimony, saying that nothing corroborated her accusations. He said the girls weren't ever harmed over the earring incident.
"This is a case about stupid earrings. Kids who want one thing and parents who want another," Irvin said.
Valdez called the 13-year-old "tremendously courageous" and said her testimony "has just flowed without reservations."
The trial started May 20. In it, the state accused Kingston and Foster of a decade-long pattern of abusing and neglecting their 10 children.
Foster has been investigated by the Utah Department of Child and Family Services at least three times since 1994, and found each time to have neglected her children by not providing enough supervision or a clean home.
Kingston is believed to have approximately 100 children with around 14 wives.
Kingston's attorney, Daniel Irvin, argued that his client had done nothing wrong and was being persecuted for his reputation as a polygamist.
"If this was John Smith or John Christianson, we wouldn't be here. But it's John Daniel Kingston," Irvin said.
Guardian ad Litem Kristin Brewer said that in addition to the abuse and neglect the Kingston children had been "deprived of a moral upbringing."
"Andrea is aware that her father has relationships with 14 women, at least three of whom are his half-sisters," she said.
There were several other allegations of criminal activity that came up in court, Valdez said, including polygamy, incest, inbreeding, falsifying documents and violation of protective orders. He said those were allegations that would have to be addressed by the Utah Attorney General's office or other prosecutors.
Valdez noted Kingston's 1999 no contest plea to felony child abuse for beating his 16-year-old daughter for running away from a prearranged polygamous marriage to one of his brothers.