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PROVO — A son of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs said Wednesday that polygamy should be decriminalized.
Roy Jeffs, who left the sect nearly four years ago and no longer practices polygamy, said a change in law would avoid the stigmatization of families who are practicing their faith.
“It would make it so people could live out in the open without constantly fearing that the whole world around them thinks they’re terrible people,” Jeffs said. “If polygamy were decriminalized, it would also allow for accountability on the parts of the people that are generally perpetrators.”
Jeffs ultimately fled the abuse that he said his father perpetrated on him.
“Look at what criminalizing polygamy has done, you know,” he explained. “It created my dad.”
In 2011, Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years on two counts of child sexual assault. Roy Jeffs said that he, too, was a victim of his father's abuse.
Roy Jeffs said he has shied away from talking about his family over the years, even as a Lyft driver who has given rides to approximately 4,000 customers.
“For the first while it terrified me — talking to new people all the time,” he said.
Jeffs said he has found driving to be therapeutic as he creates a new life for himself.
“I quite enjoy it,” he said. “I do it full time, and it’s been really nice that way.” Andrew Adams is a multi-media journalist for KSL NewsRadio and KSL-TV. His work also regularly appears in the Deseret News. Email: aadams@ksl.com
