"Sister Wives" premieres and viewers ask, "How do they get away with it?"
 
Reported by: Jon Du Pre
ABC 4 News
Dan Salmon, ABC 4 News
Kody Brown and his 'Sister Wives'

Kody Brown and his 'Sister Wives'

LEHI, Utah (ABC 4 News) - "How do they get away with it?" That's the question today, as television viewers react to a new cable reality show featuring a self-proclaimed polygamous family in Utah.

The show is called "Sister Wives." It's billed as a real-life, day-to-day portrayal of a family whose members refer to themselves as polygamists.

"Hello. I'm Kody and this is my family," says Kody Brown in the show's opening segment.

Kody is the husband and father. The four women who live with him all refer to themselves as his wives. Brown and his four wives now have 13 children between them.

The show appears to be a celebration as well as an examination of the Brown family's unusual arrangement, promising to allow the audience to eavesdrop on almost every aspect of their lives.

Sunday night's premier episode reportedly attracted a lot of curiosity, and now that it has hit the air it has generated a lot of questions. Most frequently asked on abc4.com and ABC 4's Facebook page:

So now that the nation knows about this family, are the Browns in trouble?

The Browns appear to be defiant as they willingly allow a national audience to watch their family life. Kody and the four women openly declare they are polygamists.

"I wouldn't want to be without any one of them," he says.

In the first episode, they discuss the religious and moral questions of their situation but not the legality of it.

"Whether it's a civil ceremony or a religious ceremony or whatever," says Salt Lake attorney Gary Skordas as he explains what he thinks authorities may do, "if they can prove that they're married in whatever ceremony or whatever jurisdiction or whatever power that put those people together as husband and wife they can be prosecuted."

Skordas bases his opinion on none other than the Utah State Constitution.

Since November 5th, 1895 it says "Polygamous and plural marriages are forever prohibited."

So Utah's attorney general is going to prosecute the Brown family, right?

Wrong.

A.G. Mark Shurtleff would not talk with us on camera about the new show but he tells ABC 4 his policy is that the attorney general will not prosecute polygamy in the state of Utah. He goes on to say, "Investigators are monitoring for any other crimes in the home."

He's talking about crimes like child abuse or child rape, for which polygamous cult leader Warren Jeffs was convicted in 2007, a conviction the Utah Supreme Court overturned on a technicality.

Skordas says there should be ample evidence to bust the Browns for an illegal marriage.

"If people are flaunting polygamy, a very serious crime in this jurisdiction, they'll do something about it," he says with confidence.

The A.G. tells ABC 4 the Utah county attorney will decide whether the Browns are breaking the law.

ABC 4 received no response from the County Attorney Jeff Buhman's office to repeated requests for a statement on whether his office will investigate whether this newly-famous family is breaking the law.

For now, it appears Mr. Brown has nothing to fear from the law as he claims as many wives as he wants.
 
ABC4.com
Originally broadcast September 28, 2010
 
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