Jeffs jury saw crime for what it was
 Conviction of sect leader shows ordinary people understood forced marriage of underage girl was not acceptable
 
By Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun
 
The only possible reaction to the double conviction of fundamentalist Mormon prophet Warren Jeffs as an accomplice to rape can be grim satisfaction.

There's no reason to rejoice in the fact that Jeffs, 51, will be sentenced Nov. 20 to between five years and life in prison for his part in the rape of a 14-year-old, who was forced by Jeffs to marry her 19-year-old first cousin.

How can there be? Somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000 people believe Jeffs to be God's infallible messenger. They are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the largest polygamist sect in North America.

It's impossible to know how many were victims of child rape, like Elissa Wall, since there's nothing new in what Jeffs did. From the 1950s on, FLDS prophets have assigned underage girls, ostensibly on orders from God. Often the grooms are decades older and often the brides are not their first wives.

Yet even before placement marriages, it wasn't uncommon for girls to be married shortly after puberty.

Equally impossible to quantify is how many FLDS boys and young men have been put in the terrible position of Allen Steed, Wall's husband.

Raging with hormones, Steed was a virgin when he married Wall. He'd been taught that he had authority over her as her "priesthood head" and that it was his duty to impregnate her and "bring forth priesthood children."

Socially and emotionally retarded because of FLDS teachings, Steed bizarrely believed that exposing his penis in a public park might convince his child bride that sex would be okay. A few days later, Wall testified, Steed raped her.

Steed, who had testified on Jeffs's behalf, was charged the day after Jeffs's conviction with one count of rape.

Ironically, Jeffs's conviction came on the anniversary of the mainstream Mormon church's manifesto, which outlawed polygamy in 1890. That's what caused the schism with the fundamentalists. And ever since, they have bedevilled and fascinated mainstream society.

For years, politicians have wrung their hands over what to do about people who so adamantly remain outside societal boundaries, and about their prophets whose control over people's lives includes not only this life, but the next.

Even though Jeffs wasn't charged with polygamy, that's what put his trial in the spotlight.

But jurors insisted polygamy and religion had nothing to do with their verdict. It was child rape, plain and simple.

Politicians are squeamish about charging polygamists with anything, especially polygamy, which is why there are now an estimated 37,000 polygamists in and around Utah, even though Utah's constitution and laws forbid it. The excuse? There aren't enough cells for all of them.

Utah's attorney-general says he'll prosecute only polygamists who take child brides. Yet, prosecutors only laid charges against Jeffs and Steed after Wall filed a civil suit naming Jeffs, the FLDS and the church's trust.

Utah prosecutions for child rape are almost as rare as polygamy prosecutions because the bar is set so high. For a criminal prosecution, the victim must report within four years of the incident. It's a wonder they get any convictions at all.

Polygamy has never been outlawed in Arizona, where Jeffs will be tried next on charges relating to sex with minors. Arizona has already successfully prosecuted a number of FLDS men for bigamy and sex with underaged girls, partly because it -- like Canada -- has no statute of limitations on reporting sexual crimes.

What Jeffs's Utah conviction proves is that ordinary people get it.

Jurors knew rape when they heard about it and they understood how Jeffs could be an accomplice by acting so recklessly by putting a 14-year-old and a 19-year-old in bed together with the expectation that they would have children.

It took more than 15 hours of talking, reading and rereading the complicated accomplice-to-rape law. But in the end, they understood that it can never be right for anyone to do what Jeffs did, regardless of their religion.

In B.C., nobody's done anything about the close to 1,200 polygamists and their child brides in and around Bountiful.

Wally Oppal promised to when he was appointed attorney-general two years ago. Abuse, not polygamy, was his focus. But that's all changed. Now it's all about polygamy.

Oppal's first special prosecutor, Richard Peck, has convinced Oppal that polygamy is the root cause of all the abuse in Bountiful.

But Oppal rejected Peck's recommendation to refer the anti-polygamy law to the Court of Appeal to determine whether the charge was even constitutional. Oppal wants somebody charged, so he hired another special prosecutor, Leonard Doust.

Doust's job is to search through the evidence from an RCMP investigation that ended nearly a year ago to determine who can be charged with polygamy.

As a result of Jeffs's conviction, more victims might be willing to come forward. But there's nobody to search them out.

RCMP investigators have moved on. Doust can't listen because it's not part of his mandate.

Polygamy is inherently harmful to women and girls, according to dozens of Canadian and international studies. But so is rape. And so is giving government funding to Bountiful's schools where girls and boys learn exactly what Elissa Wall and Allen Steed were taught.

dbramham@png.canwest.com
 
canada.com
Originally published Saturday, September 29, 2007
 
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