Thy unlawful wife
 State must close polygamy loopholes
 
Opinions
The Arizona Republic
 
If you think the nest of polygamy on Arizona's northern border is a remote and self-contained problem, think again.

Think of Brian David Mitchell and Stanley Rimer. Both demonstrate the very real dangers posed by those who justify their lusts by saying God commands them to take plural wives - the younger the better.

Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, allegedly kidnapped 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart in 2002. She was found with the pair nine months later. Mitchell was moved by a "revelation from God" to take the child as his second wife, according to court documents reviewed by the Associated Press.

He was deemed incompetent to stand trial, and he and Barzee are now in a mental hospital.

The couple embraced a version of Mormon fundamentalism that calls for a return to plural marriage. The mainstream Mormon Church has forbidden polygamy since 1890, but it is part of the original teachings of church founder Joseph Smith.

Mitchell was not affiliated with the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which owns most of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, and claims as many as 10,000 followers.

Mitchell was "a so-called independent, of whom there are untold multitudes currently practicing polygamy throughout the western United States, Canada and Mexico," according to Jon Krakauer's book Under the Banner of Heaven.

Stanley Rimer was apparently another "independent" practitioner of polygamy. A former Phoenix resident, he was sentenced last week by a Maricopa County Superior Court to 159 years for acting on his so-called divine revelation to take his 10-year-old stepdaughter as his third wife. He blamed religious persecution for his conviction of sexually abusing the girl for more than a decade. The child's mother, Janice Rimer, got 10 years.

Current laws were enough to put them away.

Current laws are not enough to act against the polygamous cult in northern Arizona.

Warren Jeffs, the fugitive leader of that polygamous cult, has been indicted for arranging a marriage between a minor girl and an older man who was already married. Eight other men from the community are awaiting trial in Mohave County on charges related to plural marriage with minors.

But prosecutions are difficult because witnesses are reluctant. Prosecutions are few because the law is inadequate. Arizona's Constitution prohibits polygamy, but there is no criminal statute under which to prosecute someone for that crime unless the plural wife is under age, says Mohave County Attorney Matthew J. Smith.

That's a big hole in the statute books.

It is also potentially dangerous for people who never go near Colorado City.

The laws of nature produce about equal numbers of male and female offspring. That means polygamy produces a surplus of young unmarriageable men. In Jeffs' world, those boys are driven away from the community.

By some estimates, as many a 1,000 of the so-called Lost Boys have been cast out over the past decade. A group of them has a civil suit against Jeffs. There are efforts to rehabilitate and educate them, but they represent a difficult population.

They have little education. They were raised to believe women are chattel and that a man needs three wives to reach heaven. They were also taught that God sometimes orders men to take young girls as wives. They are ripe for the kind of delusions that motivated Mitchell and Rimer.

That's why these polygamous communities should not be seen as self-contained or remote from the lives of average Arizonans.

Arizona's lawmakers passed legislation to address child abuse and other issues related specifically to the FLDS. They did so at the urging of Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who has also joined with Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to offer a $10,000 reward for Jeffs' arrest. Goddard has also asked U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to do a civil rights review of the Colorado City police, where FLDS members are suspected of enforcing church rules, not the law.

These are important steps. But lawmakers need to enact statutes that enable law enforcement to arrest and prosecute those who practice polygamy.

They need to do it because polygamy is neither remote nor self-contained.
 
azcentral.com
Originally published October 26, 2005
 
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