State's top court hears polygamous judge's case
 
By Michael Rigert
Provo Daily Herald
 
Taking its docket on the road, the Utah Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a packed classroom at Brigham Young University in the case of a justice court judge facing possible removal from the bench for having three wives.

Walter Steed of Hildale, a widely known polygamous community along Utah's southern border, has served as a justice court judge for 25 years.

But the state Judicial Conduct Commission learned two years ago he was married to three women.

"As long as I can do my job, why should I (be removed)?" Steed asked Wednesday outside the courtroom at BYU, The Associated Press reported.

The commission was tipped off about Steed's marital status in November 2003 by Tapestry Against Polygamy, an advocacy group founded by ex-polygamous women seeking to help others leave plural marriages.

Based on a 14-month investigation of Steed ending in February, Utah's Judicial Conduct Commission told the state Supreme Court the judge's relationship with the women violates the state's bigamy law and ordered his removal from the bench.

"I feel like there's an issue -- the constitutionality of the bigamy statute -- that needs to be decided," said Steed, according to the AP. "If I can be a vehicle to help decide it, I don't feel picked on."

Steed's attorney Rod Parker told the court Steed legally married his first wife in 1965, while the other two women were "sealed" to Steed in 1975 and 1985 in spiritual unions.

"It was not a civil marriage," Parker said. "All the participants were adults and it was consensual."

He added that both the County Attorney's Office and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff declined to prosecute Steed.

Justice Ronald Nehring asked Parker if a judge had the same ability to exercise civil disobedience as an ordinary citizen. After citing case law, Parker responded that Steed was simply participating in society in a way other members of that community participated.

After justices established that polygamy is widely practiced in Hildale, Parker said having more than one wife would neither bring Steed into disrepute nor impede his ability to act as a judge.

"It might run into more disrepute if he didn't practice plural marriage," Justice Nehring said.

Comparing plural marriage to other unprosecuted Utah laws such as fornication or adultery, Parker said previously, polygamy hadn't been prosecuted for 50 years.

Justices Matthew Durrant and Michael Wilkins countered that as public servants, judges' free speech and expression rights are curtailed by holding the office.

Colin Winchester, the conduct commission's executive director, said though the attorney general declined to prosecute Steed, the state is prosecuting polygamous marriages involving so-called child brides who are under the legal age of consent. Even a complaint of adultery, Winchester said, would require an investigation by the commission. He said Steed could have preempted the current case before the Utah Supreme Court by filing a declaratory judgment asking the state for guidance on his marital situation or requesting an ethics opinion from the commission.

"You can do that rather than wait for years and years," Winchester said. "The conduct has been going on for 25 years. Judges are required to live by different standards."

The court took Wednesday's oral arguments under advisement and a ruling on the case will be forthcoming.
 
harktheherald.com
Originally published Thursday, November 3, 2005
 
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