In the wake of our recent discussion about polygamy comes this report of a Utah state judge who is himself polygamous:
Hildale Justice Court Judge Walter Steed - an admitted polygamist with three wives and 32 children - should be removed from the bench, according to a recommendation by Utah's judicial watchdog group.The Judicial Conduct Commission claims Steed violated the law and his oath of office by engaging in bigamy.
In documents filed with the Utah Supreme Court, the commission concludes that removal from the bench is the only appropriate sanction because "Steed does not intend to change his living arrangements, which means he will continue to violate Utah law."
Hard to disagree with that. Regardless of whether one thinks that should be the law or not, you cannot have a judge, whose job is to enforce the law, openly defying it. The same thing was true of Judge Moore in Alabama. Even if you believed that he should have been allowed to place the ten commandments monument in the courthouse there, you certainly shouldn't accept his open defiance of a higher court order. Must be an odd kind of judgeship though - the guy is a truck driver who makes $250 a week as a part time judge.
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Hildale is a small community on the Utah-Arizona border which, combined with its sister city, Colorado City, Arizona, constitutes what once was known as Short Creek. Short Creek was briefly famous in 1953 when the Arizona governor jailed many of the polygamist men from the town. The raid was a public relations disaster that has served as a cautionary tale for politicians ever since.
I was publisher of the newspaper in St. George, Utah in the mid-90s, which is about an hour west of Hildale/Colorado City. The towns continue to be populated almost entirely by polygamists adhering to a renegade fundamentalism that the Mormon Church takes great pains to distance itself from (I'm a lapsed fifth generation Mormon myself). Many small southern Utah towns have part-time judges who are essentially justices of the peace.
This is a strangely wonderful part of the world. Take a trip to Wal-mart any day of the week and you'll find polygamists -- distinctive by their hairstyles and dress reminiscent of conservative Pentecostals (that's how my wife was raised) -- on every aisle. Many of the men work in St. George and are some of the best craftsmen in the area. One laid the brick for a million-dollar home next door to a friend of mine.
One post script: In my humble opinion, anyone who thinks polygamy should be outlawed because any woman who wants to participate in it surely can't be of a sound mind is being blatantly patronizing. If she's 18, I say let her make up her own mind. For what it's worth. (I've now exposed my own version of small "l" libertarianism.)
How exactly is this guy breaking the law - is he legally married to more than one woman, or has he legally divorced each wife to marry the next? If it is the latter, then the guy is just an adulterer, and I don't think we can consider that illegal after the Lawrence v. Texas ruling. There is, of course, the possibility of welfare fraud, as is relatively common in polygamous communities, but I am interested to know if he actually broke any laws.
You have raised an ages-old issue among prosecutors in Utah. Since it's illegal to be married to more than one woman at a time, and since the new wives are cohabitating voluntarily, aren't the new marriages worth less than the paper memorializing them, and aren't they, therefore, not really marriages at all?
It's dicey. Most prosecutors don't want to enter the legal jungle. Many times the polygamists themselves provide the legal ammunition, because they insist on referring to the multiple marriages as legally binding, even against the threat of legal action or jail time. Usually, prosecutors back off, except in the instance of public officials (a cop in one high-profile case a few years back).
Welfare fraud has, indeed, been an angle pursued (not recently), but then you end up with women and children not cared for in some fashion and there's are political entanglements over that. So, usually the powers that be just look the other way.
I figured welfare fraud would be considered more often. This guy works as a truck driver, gets an whopping $250 a week as a judge, has three "wives" and 32 kids, and my guess would be this fellow would have to depend on some form of state aid. Given, one doesn't need to be married to apply for welfare, and his tax deductions must be huge, but still...
As for polygamy itself, I have no problem with it as long as all parties involved are consenting adults, but I have a problem with my taxes going to support a family of 32 people led by a truck driver. You can have all the wives and husbands you want, but don't force taxpayers to cough up the dough because you can't support your obnoxiously large family. Roger is right - it is a dicey situation.
BTW, on an unrelated note... Wasn't St. George the town that got hit with fallout from above-ground nuclear testing in Nevada decades ago, causing cancer rates to skyrocket?
The Utah laws are a bit different (see below):
http://www.absalom.com/mormon/polygamy/utah-law.htm
They prevent both bigamy and cohabitation. Even if a man only married one woman under the state law, he would still he in trouble if he cohabited with N women.
However, it does seem to be that Lawrence v. Texas gives him the liberty interest in cohabitation with any number of females. If he is fired for violating Utah law he should sue to establish that the Utah law is unconstitutional
I agree on the issue of Welfare. Although if a woman has N children outside of marriage they are still eligable for state support. The laws that apply to unmarried women should apply to polygamous women. On the other hand most states limit what a woman can receive if she is married, so perhaps the rules governing married women or accounting for the husband's financial resources are the more applicable.
There was a case in Utah a few years ago of a polygamist being prosecuted. I believe the man's name was Tom Greene. Probably the only reason he was prosecuted was because he appeared on national television and boasted of his polygamous activities. I don't recall the details, but I believe that he was not a legal polygamist, since (from reports) it appeared that he legally divorced one wife before acquiring the next. But they would all live together in something like a commune. One of the things I believe he was prosecuted for was statutory rape, since some of his "wives" were on the order of 12 or 13 years old when he "married" them. And, more than a few of his children were on public assistance, so that is clearly an issue.
One of the issues with polygamy in polygamous societies is that men often use the size of their harem as an indicator of wealth. (I don't know of any society in which women acquired multiple husbands.) In those societies, men of lower economic status would basically be denied access to women. Since I'm gay, that wouldn't be a problem for me, but it might be a problem for more than a few men.
One of the issues with polygamy in polygamous societies is that men often use the size of their harem as an indicator of wealth. (I don't know of any society in which women acquired multiple husbands.) In those societies, men of lower economic status would basically be denied access to women. Since I'm gay, that wouldn't be a problem for me, but it might be a problem for more than a few men.
Well it really isn't a problem for me either. I wouldn't want any woman who would have the slightest interest in being a concubine anyway, so it wouldn't deny my "access" to anything I would want access to in the first place.
In most of these Utah/Arizona polygamist communes, the vast majority of women work outside the home. Typically, one or two women (the older ones) are assigned with the task of raising the children, while most of the younger women must contribute money to the family. Many of the homes are enormous (though not exactly stylish) and are essentially always under construction (it's also a tactic they use to avoid paying property taxes -- the home is never officially finished).
Yes, St. George is a "downwinder" community, where radioactive fallout from the Nevada Test Site to the west caused a high incidence of certain types of cancer. Author Terry Tempest Williams has written beautifully on the subject (including recounting her experiences watching mushroom clouds rise over the desert).
>>>Must be an odd kind of judgeship though - the guy is a truck driver who makes $250 a week as a part time judge.<
As if anyone needed ANOTHER reason NOT to live in Utah.