North America

July 15, 2006

Testimony shows man took teen bride after 'marriage' with her mom

Family ties: Verdict is called a message
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune

KINGMAN, Ariz. - Compelling testimony about how polygamous marriages work, coupled with birth certificates, proved enough for a Mohave County jury to find a Colorado City, Ariz., man guilty of two sex-crime charges Friday.

The jury found Kelly Fischer, 39, had engaged in sex with a 16-year-old girl he took as a plural wife about six years ago and that it occurred in the home they shared in Colorado City. Prosecutors had contended Fischer, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, conspired with Warren Jeffs, the faith's leader, and the girl's mother in arranging to have sex with her.
The jury took just over an hour to reach its verdict, despite the lack of testimony from a victim or a witness with firsthand knowledge of the crimes.
"The evidence was very direct in what conclusion we came to," said Debbie Henderson, the head juror, as she left the courthouse. "That made it really easy. The witnesses - all three - they knew what they were talking about."
Henderson also said birth certificates, which showed the girl was 17 when she gave birth to a child fathered by Fischer, were "definitely very good evidence."
Fischer was the first of eight men to stand trial on the sex crime charges, and Mohave County Attorney Matt Smith said he hoped the verdict sent a message to the polygamous FLDS community that straddles the Utah/Arizona state line.
"This case is not about polygamy. It is about underage sex practices and having sex with underage girls, and I think the jury in this county is speaking for the fact that that is not something that should be tolerated, no matter where it happens," Smith said.
He also praised the jury for being able to understand the conspiracy charge, saying that the only way FLDS men enter marriages with underage girls is if "Warren Jeffs puts his stamp of approval on it."
Jeffs is a fugitive, wanted on the same Arizona charges, as well as a rape-as-an-accomplice charge in Utah for his role in arranging and conducting underage marriages. He has been on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" fugitive list since May 6.
Fischer, a construction contractor, sat stoically as the court clerk read the jury's verdict, and he left the courthouse without speaking.
Judge Steven F. Conn will sentence Fischer on Aug. 4. The charges - sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor - are class 6 felonies punishable by four months to two years in prison, or probation.
Bruce Griffen, Fischer's attorney, said he will seek probation, with the possibility of dropping the conviction from his record in the future, as allowed by Arizona law.
Smith said victims usually are allowed input on sentences, but since the girl has not been located, he doubted "we'll have much luck in that."
Fischer is listed as the father of her first child, born in 2001, and Griffen did not dispute that. Instead, he challenged the lack of specific information on where she conceived the child - raising questions about whether Arizona had jurisdiction in the case - and who else might have had a role in authorizing the relationship.
But Smith returned over and over to one theme: exploitation of minors.
According to testimony, the girl's mother was ''re-assigned'' as a wife to Fischer around 1997-98 and moved into his home with her children. Her daughter - who would become Fischer's third wife - was about 13 or 14.
Isaac Wyler, then an FLDS member, lived down the street and worked with Fischer on community service projects. Wyler testified that a couple of years later, he noticed the girl and Fischer frequently riding horses together.
Once they came up a creek near his home and Fischer asked Wyler, a horse trainer, for advice about how to get their horses to cross a large puddle.
"They were joking around a little bit, probably inappropriately for the way we were raised," he said, describing it as "courtship" behavior.
Wyler later heard the pair had been married in a secret FLDS ceremony - a rumor he felt was confirmed when he saw Fischer drive by one day with the girl seated in the vehicle between him and his legal wife.
That behavior is typical among polygamists who "rotate" seating arrangements among wives - a strong relationship signal in a faith that discourages displays of affection, said Wyler, who was kicked out of the FLDS church in 2004.
Richard Holm, also an ex-FLDS member, described how marriages are directed by the faith's prophet. No one can refuse such edicts, he said, without facing intense pressure and threats of, as Smith put it, "death and destruction."
Smith said that explanation showed why Fischer had to have approval from Jeffs and the girl's mother to father children with her.
"The only way it happened is the way you heard things happen up there," he said. "Sex with underage girls would be condoned up there. . . . But keep in mind that doesn't make it OK. . . . This is, in effect, sex with his stepdaughter. He's got to know that is wrong."
Smith told the jury that in sex abuse and domestic violence cases, there often is no victim testifying; nevertheless, cases go forward.
"You're her voice. You get to speak for the victim in this case," Smith said. "Don't let him get away with it."
Griffen argued the testimony was full of "guess, speculation and assumption," and characterized Wyler and Holm as disgruntled.
"Seeing [the girl] at a house is not circumstantial evidence of sexual intercourse at that house," said Griffen, who had suggested it was possible the girl became pregnant in some other state where Fischer worked.
"Don't rely on just culture," he urged jurors, asking them to put aside their feelings about polygamy, Jeffs and about men who father "a couple dozen football teams of children . . . to give a Colorado City fundamentalist a fair trial."

What's next:

* Kelly Fischer will be sentenced Aug. 4.
* Seven other polygamists face identical charges: Dale Evans Barlow, 48, whose trial begins in August; Rodney Hans Holm, 39; Donald Robert Barlow, 49; Vergel Bryce Jessop, 46; Terry Darger Barlow, 24; Randolph J. Barlow, 33; and David Romaine Bateman, 49. They are the largest group to be prosecuted on charges related to polygamy since 1953, when Arizona staged an infamous raid on Short Creek, now known as Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

Posted by Julia at 11:31 AM

June 24, 2006

Defining 'cults' is complex

Polygamists, former members speak out at Denver meetings

By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News

DENVER — Are polygamous groups "cults"?
That question was debated here Friday as former members of polygamous groups shared their stories of abuse and control in fundamentalist communities.
They came to participate in the 2006 conference of the International Cultic Studies Association, a group of academics, therapists and former cult members, being held over three days at a hotel near Denver.
Several sessions dealt specifically with polygamy, and members of the polygamous community of Centennial Park, Ariz., were among those who showed up to challenge the notion that they're "cult members."
"Your experience is not mine," one woman told a panel of ex-polygamous wives and therapists. "My experience is not yours."
She would not give her name to the Deseret Morning News but said she and others from the polygamous community on the Utah-Arizona border came here to educate themselves on the components of a cult and take steps to avoid falling under that definition.
The definition of a "cult" is something that not everyone here at the ICSA conference agrees upon. One man's religion is another man's cult, and in some cases mainstream religions consider other mainstream religions to be cults.
In the case of polygamous congregations and communities, "What you see is you have different definitions," said Mike Kropveld, the director of Info-Cult, a cult monitoring center in Montreal, Canada. "Do they all operate the same? Some are maybe more abusive and harmful. Some are probably more moderate, and with each group you cannot generalize, either."
Cults are generally considered authoritarian, closed groups that exploit their members. However, some in polygamy freely say they are very happy in their lives.
"You can say every religion can be a cult," the woman from Centennial Park said. "Destructive, I guess would be the word. We do not want to be destructive."
Polygamous groups will not escape being classified as a cult, said Andrea Moore-Emmett, a member of Tapestry Against Polygamy and a presenter at this conference. She has been speaking about polygamy at the ICSA conference for the past five years.
"They are cults," she said Friday. "They have all the dynamics of a cult as we discuss (it) here. They're definitely considered a cult in my mind."
Some ex-polygamists freely used the term to describe their former lives. Sylvia Mahr, who lived in the Utah-based Apostolic United Brethren's enclave in Pinesdale, Mont., said all polygamous groups are "abusive."
"The outside world sees them as a quaint, Amish people," she said.
Laura Chapman said she was raised in the Fundamentalist LDS Church and forced into marriage at age 18. Coming out of a cult, she said she is grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder, trying to raise her children and reclaiming a lost childhood.
"I went trick or treating for the first time with my children," she said Friday.
Other presenters criticized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for what they said is its silence on some points of the doctrine of polygamy.
However, the LDS Church has repeatedly said it no longer practices polygamy and excommunicates members who do.
The polygamous Fundamentalist LDS Church and its fugitive leader, Warren Jeffs, were the topic of some discussion here. Audiotapes of Jeffs' preaching racist beliefs were played. In one, Jeffs criticized rock music.
"When you enjoy the beat, the rock music, you're enjoying the spirit of the black race," he said in his monotone voice, which one cult watcher described as "hypnotic."
Jeffs is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list with a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. He is facing criminal charges in Utah and Arizona, accusing him of forcing teenage girls into polygamous marriages with older men. Federal prosecutors have charged Jeffs with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Stephanie Spanos, a child psychiatrist from New York City, said she was interested in the discussions of polygamous cults as a societal model.
"It examines a society that is very isolated," she said. "You can actually identify all the different problems that families face when they're involved in this kind of social structure."


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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com

Posted by Julia at 01:32 PM

April 18, 2005

Utah, Arizona Target Polygamists

Lawyers representing the attorneys general of Arizona and Utah plan to be in court today in Salt Lake City to support moves to strip the head of the nation's largest polygamist community of his greatest political and financial assets.

Continue reading "Utah, Arizona Target Polygamists"

Posted by Julia at 09:56 PM

'Eye-popping' look at Smart case

In August 2002, two months after 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart disappeared, Salt Lake police were called to the downtown library to check out a homeless man wearing robes and his two female companions.

Continue reading "'Eye-popping' look at Smart case"

Posted by Julia at 01:43 PM

Beyond Kool-Aid: Looking at Jonestown and Its Ideals

BERKELEY, Calif., April 17 - After three years of working on "The Laramie Project" - the award-winning show about the murder of a young gay man, Matthew Shepard - Leigh Fondakowski, the head writer, was hoping to avoid another dark, depressing subject. The actor and writer Greg Pierotti, another "Laramie" veteran, shared her concern. He was contemplating a comedy, a Feydeau farce perhaps.

Instead they created a play about Jonestown and what led up to the massacre there.

Continue reading "Beyond Kool-Aid: Looking at Jonestown and Its Ideals"

Posted by Julia at 01:40 PM

Loyalists not always healed by faith alone

Some ailing End Timers had suffered at home

LAKE CITY - Followers of Charles Meade had much to be thankful for during their first seven years in their promised land.

Continue reading "Loyalists not always healed by faith alone"

Posted by Julia at 07:14 AM

April 14, 2005

Jehovah's Witness, 14, loses fight to refuse transfusions

Damian Inwood, with a file from Jack Keating
The Province Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Cancer sufferer cannot turn down blood, judge rules

A 14-year-old Okanagan member of the Jehovah's Witness church has lost a bitter court battle against receiving blood transfusions.

Continue reading "Jehovah's Witness, 14, loses fight to refuse transfusions"

Posted by Perry at 08:54 PM

Kingston kids to go back to mom

Judge gives her a chance but warns reuniting will take effort.

Saying their future ''rests in your arms, your hands and your love,'' 3rd District Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Valdez ordered the state Wednesday to begin the process of reuniting Heidi Mattingly Foster and her children.

"I do believe you've made some changes," Valdez told Mattingly Foster, who has 11 children with polygamist John Daniel Kingston. ''I'm trying to help you become a better mom, that's all.''

Continue reading "Kingston kids to go back to mom"

Posted by Julia at 12:26 PM

Panel looks at polygamous sect

AUSTIN, Texas — Expert witnesses warned a House committee Wednesday that a polygamous sect taking root in West Texas is led by a man who poses a danger to women and children in the sect and has the capacity to incite religiously inspired violence.

Continue reading "Panel looks at polygamous sect"

Posted by Julia at 07:21 AM

January 28, 2004

Sect leader found guilty of child molestation

BRUNSWICK, Georgia (AP) -- The leader of a quasi-religious sect was convicted Friday of molesting boys and girls at the group's ancient Egyptian-style compound.

Continue reading "Sect leader found guilty of child molestation"

Posted by Julia at 06:17 PM