Associated Press – September 17, 2007
ST. GEORGE, Utah – A young woman who said she was forced to enter an arranged marriage at age 14 testified Monday that she never complained to her mother or sisters that she was being raped.
“I never told anyone,” the woman, now 21, said during cross-examination at the trial of polygamous-sect leader Warren Jeffs.
Jeffs, president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is charged with two counts of rape as an accomplice. Prosecutors say he used his influence to push the girl into a ceremonial marriage with a 19-year-old cousin in 2001 and force her to have sex.
Last week the woman testified that she sobbed through the wedding and had to be coaxed by Jeffs and her mother when asked to say “I do.” She hid in a bathroom after the ceremony at a Nevada motel.
Defense attorney Tara Isaacson challenged her earlier testimony and her statements to police in 2006.
The woman said Jeffs never specifically spoke to her about having sex because the FLDS faithful didn’t use that word. She acknowledged her mother had a “great deal of influence” on her to go ahead with the marriage ceremony.
The woman has been the only witness through nearly three days of trial. She recalled last week how she avoided sex for weeks but could no longer deny her husband when he said it was “time for you to be a wife and do your duty.”
Wanting to die, she said she subsequently swallowed two bottles of over-the-counter pain reliever.
“He was my priesthood head and husband. He was my patriarch,” she said of her cousin. “And I was risking my spiritual salvation by questioning my husband and not becoming one with him.”
The woman said she sought an FLDS divorce, known as a release, from Jeffs but was denied.
She finally left her three-year marriage and the FLDS church in 2004 after becoming pregnant with another man’s child. The Associated Press generally does not name people alleging sexual abuse.
Jeffs, 51, has been president of the FLDS church since 2002. Followers see him as a prophet who communicates with God and holds dominion over their salvation. Ex-church members say he reigns with an iron fist, demanding perfect obedience from followers.
If convicted of the charges, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Polygamy, a practice central to FLDS religious beliefs, is not an issue in the case because the three-year marriage between the cousins was monogamous. The faith believes plural marriage brings exaltation in heaven.
The sect split from the Mormon church, which disavowed polygamy in 1890 and excommunicates members found to be practicing plural marriage.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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posted September 17, 2007 at 7:49 pm
OHG!
We have to stop this now. Next thing you know they will be pushing for gay marriage.
Kidding aside, forced marriage at any age demonstrates a lack of respect for the one being forced…in this case, the woman (a girl at the time).
Forced sexual acts also demonstrate a lack of respect for the one being forced.
It is amazing how God can be used at the excuse for so very many things that clearly do not demonstrate the individual worth of each and every one of God’s creations!
Peace!
posted September 17, 2007 at 8:27 pm
While I am defiantly against anyone being forced into a marriage, somehow it just seems odd for a girl that age to be complaining about having to have sex with an older boy. Usually you can’t keep them apart. But if it was a first cousin, that would be the problem. I missed that at first.
As to polygamy, I don’t think the government should decide who you are married to (which sex either), or how many as long as you don’t expect additional benefits for the extra marriage. One primary spouse for insurance purposes and deductions and such.
posted September 17, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Just imagine this headline: Adult Methodist man forces 14 yr. old girl to marry 19 yr. old cousin. He would have been convicted of perversion, along with the 19 yr. old man. They would be in jail and serving their time a lot faster than these Morman type men, and when is the 19 yr. old now 25 yrs. old going to be convicted of perversion as well as Warren Jeffs? It’s against the law to rape your wife, and she claims she was raped by this 19 yr. “forced-husband”. Religion should not be used as a excuse for perversion.
posted September 17, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Ruairi, the problem with polygamy, in Utah as I’ve read is that these women haven’t got a “Choice”. They are told they are in essence chattel, because that is Gods plan for them. They can’t be received into heaven unless they marry and do exactly as their husbands say. Sort of white slavery. This shouldn’t be ignored in America. It’s sick.
posted September 17, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Happily, many religions are rarely or perhaps never used for perversions like this, but probably most could be. Religion is dangerous.
posted September 18, 2007 at 12:17 am
Henrietta,
I am with you on this one. Choice is the big concern. At 14 years,a girl does not have the capacity to make that choice. The tendency toward slavery is strong. Sure, a few women may not have to deal with this male dominance. But I expect they are the exception.
In a very superficial way, this seems like a similar facet of the entire marriage issue, same sex, polygamy, “green card”, etc…
The difference in all of these is Choice and the role ofdominance and suthority. In same sex marriage, they adults have made a choice and are willing to accept the consequences. Not so in these polygamy cases. Even in “green card” marriages one party is usually taking marked advantage of the other. The role of “choice” in all of this may be the key.
nnmns, you are right, in this case religion is dangerous, like sweating nitro glycerin.
posted September 18, 2007 at 1:19 am
A 14 year old can’t get a tattoo even WITH parental permission. (At least, not where I live.)
There shouldn’t even be a trial for this sick pedophile freak.
Oh, and you will all be pleased to know that while the trail commences, his followers continue to build a mega-temple that, when complete (“when the very last stone is set in place,” to be exact), will herald the end of the world. I hope you all have your roll of quarters for admission to the spaceship. Oh wait, wrong cult.
posted September 18, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Why not let the women decide? What about if some wome prefer to share one alpha male than being the only one for a loser?
posted September 18, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Alpha male vs. loser. Maybe in a pack of wolves the non-alpha males are losers, but in humans the most aggressive/toughest/wildest male doesn’t get to cut out the rest. And for good reasons; those guys make good cannon fodder, and we need some for that and other reasons, but they can make crummy leaders, scientists, etc. So for good reason human society has nullified the breeding advantages those males might have.
Of course you could still argue people should be able to choose their mating arrangements, as long as there is clearly no force of any kind applied and with some other restrictions.
posted September 18, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Henrietta,
Utah isn’t the only place polygamy is practiced. I know many trios and such who have a working relationship between them. Of course only one couple can be officially married, but what I was saying is that the government doesn’t need to have a say in who wants to marry. It is none of their business.
It is the religion portion of it thats the problem. Even if the women aren’t forced into a marriage they don’t want, they are still looked down on. As long as they remain in the religion though, they have made a choice to be held as that. Although of course a 14 year doesn’t have a say in much of anything.
posted September 19, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Even if the women aren’t forced into a marriage they don’t want, they are still looked down on.
Are you talking about the ones in Utah, Ruairi? There aren’t any women in Utah who are not being forced into marriage. Their religion and the men tell them it is their duty to take care of them and have their children, or else they can’t enter heaven. If they are so brain-washed that they want to live this way I feel sorry for them, I don’t look down at them. Actually if people are living in trios elsewhere in the U.S., it makes me wonder about their motives; not enough men or women to find just one, too lazy and uneducated to take responsibility for one man and children themselves. Frankly I find it amazing that they’d want to be one of a herd of women.
posted September 19, 2007 at 9:39 pm
>>>>
Frankly I find it amazing that they’d want to be one of a herd of women.
Posted by: Henrietta22 | September 19, 2007 7:44 PM
>>>>>
If everyone liked the same things there wouldn’t be enough broccoli to go around.