'Prophet' allowed women to rule on sex, trial told
 
By Petti Fong
WESTERN CANADA BUREAU CHIEF
Toronto Star
 
ST. GEORGE, Utah–One was a modern, defiant wife who proudly said no to unwanted sex; the other a mild, soft-spoken husband who insisted he always waited until his wife was ready to have sexual relations.

The two witnesses presented by the defence in the case of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs were a study in contrast of the role of women and men under the rule of the man they both called "prophet."

The defence began its case yesterday in Jeffs's trial on two counts of being an accomplice to rape by showing a religion and culture of obedience and submissiveness of women who could still assert some authority.

It is a marked difference to the culture portrayed by Jane Doe, the now-21-year-old woman and former follower of Jeffs who said she was forced into an unwanted marriage as a teenager and raped.

The scenario presented by Doe, who was 14 when she was married to her 19-year-old first cousin, was of absolute obedience to the words of the "prophet." She said she begged Jeffs to free her from her marriage, but he ignored her pleas.

Jeffs is the spiritual leader of the 6,500-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a group scattered through Arizona, Utah and with an off-shoot branch in Bountiful, B.C., headed by Winston Blackmore.

Jeffs was arrested last year in Las Vegas after being put on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.

One of the members of the FLDS testified that force is something that would never happen among adherents of the religion.

Ben Thomas, who spoke so softly that the judge urged him to speak up, said it was his duty to rule over his wife and family.

"But this is with a loving hand with their interest in mind. I am to be their leader, their guide through this life, but there is no force."

Thomas said when Jeffs first told him at 9 a.m. one day that he was going to be married at 7 that night to a woman he did not know, he accepted the choice made by the "prophet."

Thomas, 34, said he and all the men in the religion are taught it is the woman who will approach her husband when she wants to have sexual relations.

Another defence witness yesterday, Jennie Pipkin, proudly showed to the court her pink iPod, which she uses to listen to music, lessons in home economics and the sermons of the "prophet."

Pipkin, 26, said she was the one who went to her father at age 17 and pressured him to ask Jeffs to arrange a marriage for her.

After five children, Pipkin, who often crossed her arms and rested her head on her hands as she testified, said she told her husband she wanted a break. When he continued to pressure her to resume sexual relations, Pipkin said, she prayed and found comfort in a sermon from Jeffs that it was up to the woman to initiate sex.

"I felt like I had the 'prophet' on my side on this issue," she said.

"I felt empowered by his statement that I was to be in charge."

But after her husband persisted one night and she woke up with her clothes off Pipkin said she went to sleep on the couch. After reporting what happened to Jeffs, he released her from her marriage.

Jeffs' responsiveness in helping Pipkin is a direct contradiction to the response the alleged victim said she received. When she went to him to complain her husband was touching her in ways she did not like, the complainant said Jeffs told her to go back to the man she married.

Pipkin also testified that she went on a camping trip with Jane Doe and her husband in which the alleged victim, who had said she resisted the marriage and could not stand her husband, showed off a negligee she had purchased.

"They were both very happy, they were smiling," said Pipkin. "She held it up in front of him. She was not shy about it."

The use of terms often used by the people in the FDLS like "touching" are so vague, Jeffs's defence team argued, that the case against their client should be dismissed.

After the prosecution closed its case yesterday morning, the defence asked for the charges to be dismissed saying there was no evidence Jeffs had knowledge of any alleged rape.

The husband of the alleged victim has not been charged.

"A person of 14 years old is capable of consenting," said defence lawyer Walter Bugden.

"She is not saying rape. She is not saying unconsented sexual intercourse. All she is saying is I'm being touched in ways that made me feel uncomfortable."

The judge ordered the case to continue.

Over a dozen of Jeffs's supporters have been attending the trial, sitting together in the back row with their heads often lowered, apparently in prayer.

The prosecution closed its case after playing a tape from Sam Barlow, a former marshal in Colorado City, Ariz., and faithful of the church. The town where the trial is being held, St. George, was a popular shopping destination for polygamist families who lived in the surrounding communities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City.

"No woman is required to marry a man that she does not want to marry," said Barlow in the recording of the speech made in 2002.

But he also warned the church's faithful that trouble was ahead for the adherents of their religion.

The U.S. Congress cannot make laws prohibiting freedom of religion so it can't legislate an age in which a person can make a religious covenant such as marriage, said Barlow.

The legal fight ahead will be expensive, he said, "but the Lord will come to our defence."

The trial continues.
 
TheStar.com
Originally published September 19, 2007
 
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