Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Is the message getting through?
Sexual abuse of children perpetrated under the cloak of religion within polygamist communities or elsewhere is intolerable and deserving of prosecution and punishment.
Polygamist David Ortell Kingston is in prison after being convicted in 1999 of having sex with his 16-year-old niece. She was identified as his 15th wife.
Polygamist Tom Green is serving time for marrying and impregnating a 13-year-old girl.
Now, comes the case of a Southern Utah police officer from the twin polygamist towns of Colorado City and Hilldale. Rodney Holm is charged with bigamy and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. Court records reveal Holm was 32 when he took Ruth Stubbs as his third wife. She was just 16.
In Utah, bigamy is illegal. And it is against the law for a person to have sex with a 16- or 17-year old, if that person is 10 or more years older than the minor.
This law and others are on the books for good reason. The main intent is to protect malleable young people from physical and sexual abuse. The prosecution of these cases is not religious persecution, as defense attorneys have charged, but a matter of upholding reasonable and meaningful laws.
It is about time those who think they can, with impunity, ignore such laws to start getting the message.
