| Lives torn apart by polygamy | |||
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By Mike Watkiss and azfamily.com staff KTVK News Channel 3 - Phoenix | |||
Two Arizonans, whose families were reportedly torn apart by a fundamentalist sect that practices polygamy in Colorado City are fighting back. Lenore Holm said she is trying to find out what happened to her 16-year-old daughter, Nicole, after Holm said the teen was recruited by religious leaders to marry a 39-year-old man. "My daughter could be being raped right now by a 39-year-old man," Holm said. Nicole would be the second wife of Wynn Jessop, who reportedly has 10 children with another woman. Many of the town's marriages are believed to have been arranged by Rulon Jeffs, the now-deceased leader of Colorado City, a town that sits on the Arizona-Utah border. In Jeffs' absence, his son Warren has reportedly been sanctioning marriages. "I think they have the wrong man in power," Holm said of the religion that she now calls a "cult." Holm said she did not consent to the marriage and that Nicole then ran away. Holm has not seen her daughter since. In addition to the uncertainty of not knowing the whereabouts of her teenage daughter, Holm and her husband, Milton, and their 11 children may be evicted from their Colorado City home for challenging the authority of the leaders, who many see as prophets of God. Much of the land in Colorado City is in a trust and controlled by the religious hierarchy who determine who will stay and who will go. Despite threats of eviction, Holm remains adamant about her position. "I think women are being herded as cattle -- children, too," Holm said. Dan Barlow, the mayor of Colorado City and a prominent member of the church, said the Holms are being kicked off the land -- not because of their daughter -- but because they turned their backs on the church and have become apostates. The Holms say they feel like their lives have been turned upside down by the church. "All I want ... is to not lose everything I have, including my family," Holm said. "I just feel like it's wrong, it's just wrong for somebody to move in on a family." Twenty-two-year-old Jason Williams is also facing a fate similar to the Holms'. The same religious leaders who allegedly placed Nicole Holm in a polygamist marriage also arranged for Williams' wife, Suzanne, to become the second wife of another man. Williams' two sons went with her. "I've done nothing. I've done nothing, but love my wife and children," Williams said. "It tears you up inside because it's your family." Williams has filed a $10 million suit against the church for alienation of affection. Church leaders dismissed the suit as groundless. Ben Bistline, a longtime Colorado City dissident and writer, said what Holm and Williams are experiencing is the tight control that the fundamentalist religious group has on the city and its residents. "The biggest problem I see ... is the control the leaders have over the people here … The people don't have their freedom," Bistline said. The alleged stranglehold the church has on its members is also evident in the recent exodus of children from a local public school. Religious leaders recently requested parents homeschool their children or send them to a special charter school. As a result, about 650 kids were pulled out of the area's public school. While religious leaders seemingly seek to isolate the family, Holm and Williams say they want to expose the religious group for what they say are crimes. Holm has sought help from the Colorado City Police Department, although she said she is not hopeful because many members of the force are also allegedly practicing polygamists. She said if she doesn't find satisfaction there, she will head to Kingman to talk to county officials and eventually, if necessary, she will take her cause to state officials. | |||
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azfamily.com Originally published August 14, 2003 | |||
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