Some former teenage Kingston Group brides acknowledge they werent forced to marry; they made a choice. The bride was 16. LGBT people fare little better in the Kingston clan. The groom wore a suit. Religion News Blog posted this on Friday June 4, 2004.Last updated if a date shows here: Friday, December 16, 2016. Colorado does not require an officiant or a ceremony to marry. As for its anti-government views, allegations of fraud against government entities have long dogged the Kingstons. No recordings or photos were allowed during the ceremony. According to written histories, John Ortell Kingston, father of the current leader, also encouraged his family members to marry other kin to improve their own bloodline. Jeremy was nearly 10 years her senior at the time. Over the years, state law enforcement and the courts have sporadically addressed the incest in the Kingston ranks. Irvin, Kingstons attorney, said his client would focus now on healing and reuniting his family. Each daughter married one of their cousins, who also are pictured with their parents. The Polygamy Dilemma Is Plural Marriage a Dead Issue in Mormonism? They should refrain from this decision until they can be well informed to make a mature and thoughtful decision before entering into marriage.. She says she was four when she was put to work at one of the Kingston's businesses. He served one day in jail. The girl suffered a swollen nose, cut lip and deep bruises on her arms, buttocks and legs, according to testimony. So, all five young ladies are cousins to the late Carolyn Yvonne Kingston. John Daniel Kingston regularly subjected two of his teenage daughters to abuse and neglect, and the girls' mother Heidi Foster, one of Kingston's estimated 14 wives failed to protect them, a juvenile judge ruled Thursday. It is believed to have about 1,000 members and a $150-million business empire in six Western states. Let me rephrase that. Snow contends her mother was one of the people who told her she needed to think about whom she was going to wed. Photo by Nate Carlisle, The Salt Lake Tribune | Shirley Hansen, seen here July 21, 2018, stands along 2100 South near State Street in Salt Lake City. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? Shanell DeRieux was married at 18 to a husband in the Kingston Group. She wasnt allowed to leave the house until she decided whom to marry. The motions, the new indictment and the docket were all unsealed Tuesday morning before the hearing. Her uncle, David Ortell Kingston, was convicted of incest and unlawful sexual contact with a minor and served four years in prison. Ethnic jokes and stereotypes were commonly repeated. So what about polygamy? But anti-polygamy activists and lawyers for the accused question if it's revenge for speaking out against the Kingstons. He was jailed for beating his daughter into unconsciousness in 1998 after the girl, then 16, ran away from an arranged marriage to her uncle. Jessica said her husband was on a group text that went around listing girls or women who had not yet married with jokes about how old the females were getting. A full body orgasm at the L.A. Phil? Another is a first cousin. There is also some overlap with Sovereign citizens, he contends. Spokesmen for both the U.S. State Department and for Picatinny Arsenal could neither verify nor deny Youngs claims. This racist display was no one-off. Im sorry that you had to go through this, she said. ". She wants to be adopted by her foster family, and one day become a police officer and help abused kids. Kingston faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. In a search of public records created since the start of 1997, The Salt Lake Tribune found 65 marriages among members of the Kingston Group in which the bride was 15, 16 or 17. Local Policing and Immigration Enforcement, Request for Legal Assistance Economic Justice. She told police she was David Kingston's 15th wife. Heidi Mattingly's says she understands that Stephanie does not want to come home. Hansen said some men try to use their children to improve their status in the sect. Somehow LaDonnas curse was transferred to the Tuckers via Christy, Rons wife, because, Christys mom left The Order and married an Irishman, before leaving him and returning to the fold. Twenty-eight times her father, John Daniel Kingston, whipped her, she testified, before she apparently passed out.On Wednesday, 1st District Judge Ben Hadfield ordered Kingston, 43, a prominent member of a Utah polygamist group, to stand trial for the May 24 assault on the girl. Now, former members say, girls who will be plural wives meaning they have only a spiritual marriage to their husband are left alone until they are 18 so laws about sex with a minor wont apply. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a count of child abuse, a second-degree felony. A body of research suggests the teenage brain is not developed enough to make the kind of long-term decision needed for marriage. The judge opted to let the women remain free without a bond, though they need to surrender their passports, wear ankle monitors and remain in Utah. Ortell died in 1987, but his progeny continued the polygamy, the inbreeding and the marriages to young female teens that he instituted. Polygamist David Ortell Kingston was released from prison Tuesday after serving four years of a possible 10-year sentence for incest with his underage niece, who testified that she was forced to become his 15th wife. New indictments were not a surprise. All of the gay people would definitely be the first to go, he said. She says life in the clan wasn't easy. The couples other eight children will remain with Foster. His brother, John Ortell Kingston, took over the leadership of The Order incorporated in the 1970s as the Latter Day Church of Christ. Rather than submit to DNA tests, which could have revealed the incest in his brood, he coughed up a more than $200,000 settlement. The girl said her father ordered her into his truck and they drove north. Their cousin Amanda Kingston is the daughter of Verl Kingston and granddaughter of Ortell Kingston. Two of Hansen's daughters legally married when they were under the age of 18 to young men in the Kingston Group. Okay, I have one legal wife, he said. However, Kingston maintained that the girl spoke with friends and family about having a relationship with him, and that the two were wed in a spiritual ceremony only after the girl and her family agreed to it. John Daniel Kingston did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday. Johnson said the Davis County Cooperative Society takes no position on the issue. During the two-hour preliminary hearing, the girl said she had run away twice, most recently two days before the alleged beating. Up to this point, Julie had treated the rumor like a joke. Stephanie wants to break from her past, but is also paving her future. If gay men stay in the closet, they are allowed to remain in the cult as worker bees.. And when her children were abused, Foster stood by. But Jessica knew the longer she waited to wed, the more likely she would have to become a polygamist and the more likely her husband would be far older than she was. There also is a link to a Change.org petition to have. Additionally, ex-Order members tell of a reputed church prophecy of an End of the World War, an apocalyptic vision that foresees a bloody race war with the Kingstons as the ultimate victors, chosen by their Heavenly Father to rule the world for a millennium. Hansen said during family home evenings nights when a mans family gathers for religious studies and games her husband would take girls 12 and older who were single and lead them in a teaching. Stephanie Mattingly: "The hardest thing, actually, the most hardest thing, the way hardest thing, is accepting that you're not going to go to hell.". She favors raising the legal marriage age to 18. While the sect is headquartered in Utah, members will travel to Colorado to wed because cousin marriages are legal there. As far as court testimony about polygamy, incest, bigamy and adultery, Valdez said those were allegations to be address by another court at another time. It passed a bill adding forced marriage into the states definition of sexual abuse. More recently, the Kingston-owned Washakie Renewable Energy (WRE) agreed to pay a $3 million fine after it was sued by the federal government for raking in tax credits for biofuels it never produced. These specialty firearms can cost anywhere from $2,500 to $8,000 each. Her parents and siblings eventually left as well. Andy Larsen: Heres where National Weather Service forecasts flooding, in the short term and the long term, Murray police officers were justified in their use of force against a 52-year-old man who died after arrest, Salt Lake County D.A. Stephanie Mattingly is the daughter of John Daniel Kingston and Heidi Mattingly. 1 choice was not her fathers. Depending on ones view, members of the Kingston Group either take care to follow marriage laws, or work to circumvent them. But attorney Kristen Brewer, director of the Guardian Ad Litems office, described the 13-year-old as a battered child and the older teen as in a precarious position because of her family loyalty and experiences with the state system. For instance, as an Amazon Associate, Religion News Blog earns from qualifying purchases. And during a recent picnic to honor the birthday of patriarch John Ortell Kingston, Order families descended on a Salt Lake Valley park, where hundreds of children of all ages blanketed the parks green expanse. Information in the story may be outdated CNN. Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company. Hansen, 50, in a recent interview, said she told her daughter that wanting to. She explained that they weren't supposed to know who their dad was, only. The ones they dont think they have to worry about, they dont push them as hard.. He says The Order regards homosexuality as a choice. The battle took place in the spiritual pre-existence that Mormons believe all souls come from. But Thursday, the younger girl recounted two instances last year when she was spanked or thrown down the stairs by her father. Mainly it's been hard emotionally. Once free of the cult, Lu Ann, Allison and other ex-Order members have had to unlearn the hatred that was drilled into their heads. One woman who was married in 2014 at age 16 said she did so for the same reason most people do: She fell in love. Jessica was given the list of suitors. Obviously, we would love to.. Todd Utzinger, one of Kingstons former attorneys, said the parole boards decision to not supervise Kingston recognizes that he has taken full responsibility and is prepared to go on and live a crime-free life.. She pointed to Kingston. She is the mother of Jacob and Isaiah Kingston. Three of his wives are his half-sisters. Prosecutors have indicted two more members of a polygamous family this time the wife of one defendant and the mother of two defendants in what prosecutors have called a $511 million fraud using biodiesel tax credits. She knows the drill, Brewer said of the 15-year-old, who ran away from home before and has been in state custody several other times. Both he and Dermen have pushed for prosecutors to accelerate the disclosure of evidence so the cases can move to trial. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? The younger girl told her mother she loved her and missed her. Our website includes affiliate links, which means we get a small commission -- at no additional cost to you -- for each qualifying purpose. Lu Ann Kingston was 15 when she married her first cousin Jeremy Kingston in a hush-hush 1995 wedding in Bountiful, Utah. Jessica Kingston said within a year of getting married, her husband started looking for a plural wife. (Photo courtesy Shanell DeRieux) John Daniel Kingston, front center, kneels in front of three of his daughters as they hold their wedding certificates July 3, 2008, in Grand Junction, Colo. Shanell DeRieux, second row left, was 18; the other two girls were 16. The doorknob to her room was removed. In response to questions from the newspaper, Kent Johnson, a spokesman for the Davis County Cooperative Society, sent an email saying marriages should occur within the age of legal consent and not be coerced. She's since left the marriage and wants the legal marriage age raised to 18. Thats what happened with Ron Tuckers family. Young also claimed Desert Tech had sold guns to Picatinny Arsenal, the research division of the U.S. military. They believe were Gods chosen people, Snow said of the Kingston Group followers, so you should start having kids as soon as possible.. Because that one is going to be genius-level purity, and thats what The Order is looking for., Photo Credit: AP Images / Leah Hogsten, Pool (John Daniel Kingston); AP Images / Jeffrey D. Allred / Pool (Jeremy Kingston), SPLC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization (EIN: 63-0598743). Rachel Kingston, 63, was charged with five counts alleging fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Former sect members testified in favor of the measure, but its unclear whether the pressures faced by teens in the Kingston Group constitute forced marriage. As a result, the prison has no responsibility to follow up on Kingston. Snow says she chose to get married to escape an abusive living situation. Dermen, also known as Levon Termendzhyan, has been indicted on 10 counts of fraud and money laundering. It begins with the potential groom. Former Order members tell of babies being born nearly every week in the church. Both are barred from contact with their father. For now, the five defendants are the three men charged in August: brothers Jacob and Isaiah Kingston, the chief executive officer and chief financial officer, respectively, of Washakie Renewable Energy; one of the business associates, Lev Dermen; and the two women whose indictments were unsealed Tuesday, Rachel Kingston, 63, and Sally Louise Kingston, the 41-year-old wife of Jacob Kingston. She talked about how you cant associate with black people or anybody of a different race., Based on available evidence, including the accounts of numerous former Order members, the SPLC has designated The Order as a hate group under the category of `general hate.'. For a stretch in 2014 and 2015, Washakie was one of Utahs highest-profile businesses. The renunciation of polygamy is now church doctrine, and the Mormon church has a policy of excommunicating polygamists. Jessica Kingston said a girls devotion and attitude are often measured by her view of polygamy. In order to maintain his familys superior bloodlines, Ortell married and had children with two of his half-sisters and two nieces. Snow and her mother, Shirley Hansen, have differing stories on what the moms role was in her daughters marriage. The woman who married in 2014 at age 16 and asked not to be identified is still with her husband. Blacks were the less valiant people in heaven who sat on the sidelines while others took sides, according to The Order. He had arranged for a banner to be placed over a bridge there. Matt Browning seems less sure. When it comes to racist Sunday school lessons, the polygamous Kingston clan could teach the Ku Klux Klan a thing or two. The judge gave the couple until June 11 to request new birth certificates. The pressure became so intense DeRieux stopped going to dances. The new indictment charges Jacob Kingston with 43 counts of filing false returns with the IRS, money laundering, threatening a witness and obstruction of justice. The DCCS reaffirms that each individual has their free agency to choose whom and when they will marry, the statement said. DeRieux did marry the next year at age 18 to a cousin who was 19. Jessica suspects her dad was pushing her toward another man. Stephanie Mattingly: "It's been really hard. It still hasnt been explained how anyone at Washakie would have known about the raid. And going back to that, she says, would hurt her future. Prosecutors have alleged the fraud amounted to almost $511 million, with the money going to the purchase of property in Turkey, among other things. By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's, Crews searching for woman caught in Weber River, Man taking family camping near Utah Lake hit and killed; driver criminally charged, Westbound I-80 closed due to vehicle fire in Salt Lake City, Utah-based Extra Space Storage to merge with Life Storage in nearly $13B deal, Utah launches statewide turf grass buyback program as it seeks water-use reformation, Have You Seen This? When they arrived in Grand Junction, all three couples filled out the papers for a marriage license. Instead, she volunteered for extra shifts at the Kingston Group-run coal mine near Huntington, where she worked as a dispatcher. Snow said the classes also taught the girls to be submissive to their husbands and to keep a good house for them. Washakie Renewable Energy promoted itself as a manufacturer and seller of biofuels. It was believed that between these seven brothers, they had 90 wives who were their half-sisters or half-nieces; there were 850 children in all. The two women surrendered over the weekend but were not booked into jail. Snow also remembered being taught end-time prophecies, with a cleansing wherein the streets of Salt Lake City would run red with blood. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax Psychological evaluations of Kingston and Foster; Kingston to fill out a child support worksheet to determine what financial aid Foster and her children should receive; Mental and developmental assessments of the couples eight other children. In federal court Tuesday, Richard M. Rolwing, a special assistant U.S. attorney, said one of the new defendants, Rachel Ann Kingston, was helping two of her sons forge documents and commit fraud to benefit her husband, John Daniel Kingston. She said marrying at 16 mitigated the pressures U.S. society places on her to have statuesque looks and be immodest. Llewellyn, John R. Polygamy Under Attack: From Tom Green to Brian David Mitchell (2004) Dan Simon & Amanda Townsend (September 7, 2007). DeRieuxs marriage effectively ended in June 2010. The new indictment describes how, in 2013, Washakie transferred $6.2 million to the Kingston Groups incorporated church or businesses operated by church members. A 16-year-old girl wept as she told a judge how her polygamist father took her to a remote family ranch near the Utah-Idaho border and whipped her with a belt because she rebelled against a marriage to his brother. Snow said she was forced to fast, pray and read the Bible. The Tribune, with assistance from former sect members who reviewed the records, also found 20 cases in which both the bride and groom were at least 18. Julie left the cult at age 19. Home births and the frequency of miscarriages and still-borns among the Kingstons have led to macabre legends of dead infants buried in Kingston back yards. A member of a polygamist clan today was convicted of incest with his 16-year-old niece, who testified that she had been forced to become his 15th wife. And then, when the men get mad at each other, they wont let the [other] mans sons come forward to marry one of their daughters. Stephanie says she was only 12 when her father began preparing her for marriage. The next night she returned to her mother's Murray home and the mother called her husband. Escaping Polygamy focuses on four sisters, Jessica & Andrea Kingston (daughters of John Daniel Kingston and his 6th wife Heidi Mattingly) and Shanell & Kollene Kingston (daughters of John Daniel Kingston and his former 7th wife Shirley Hansen). The Utah Attorney General's Office filed a motion today, requesting that Judge Andrew Valdez recuse himself from the case. Nevertheless, former members of The Order say that incest and racism are inextricably linked in The Orders teachings. One of the seven brothers was John Daniel Kingston, the father of the main stars of "Escaping Polygamy." TV Premiere and premise of "Escaping Polygamy" Jacob Kingston has filed a motion for pretrial release and offered to post $10 million in bail. There are also accounts of dead babies being buried at the Holy Spot, a tree-shrouded patch of land across the street from a grade school in Bountiful, just north of Salt Lake City. Daniel Irvin, Kingstons defense attorney, had characterized the case as about a stupid pair of earrings, kids who want one thing and parents who want another in his closing arguments. Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune But Stephanie Mattingly doesn't ever want to go back to her old life in the Kingston polygamous clan. The teacher added a drop of dye to the water, and the children watched as the blackness slowly spread. Young told Intelligence Report that his company has sold weapons, with the approval of the U.S. State Department, to governments in Europe and the Middle East, Saudi Arabia being one. The next hearing in the Kingston custody case is scheduled for Tuesday, although Heidi Mattingly's attorney tells us it may be delayed. By 18 she was pregnant with her first child and ended up having four children in four years. She says marriages can be used in The Order to gain or maintain favor among the parents of the brides and grooms. Jessica has begun working with Hope After Polygamy, a charity started by the cast of Escaping Polygamy and other former Kingston Group members to assist people leaving polygamous sects. John Daniel Kingston did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday. His battles with the church arent over, How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, U.S. says 20,000 Russians killed in Ukraine war since December, Speaker Kevin McCarthy addresses Knesset amid fraught U.S.-Israel ties, First Republic: Cheap, interest-only jumbo mortgages to Silicon Valleys elite fueled the banks failure, SpaceX used wildlife preserve as dumping ground for space waste, lawsuit alleges, Judge blocks Missouri rule that would limit transgender care. Its all political, Jessica said. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Tomorrow's Deseret Morning News will have much more on the case. In 2003, Order member Jeremy Kingston pleaded guilty to incest for taking his first cousin, 15-year-old Lu Ann Kingston, as his fourth wife. She received no sex education or premarital counseling. I didnt even know the n-word was bad until I was like 15 or 16, she told Intelligence Report. Tucker is another of Ortells many sons, though not from the favored wife, LaDonna. Yeah, I believe in it, he said. For now, Utah law says a 15-year-old may marry with the consent of a parent or guardian and the permission of a juvenile court judge. The term cult has a precise definition or rather, Religion News Blog is a service provided by. Girls who agree to become plural wives tend to be more devout and usually live in homes without their husband, thus receiving less scrutiny. You guys are the best parents in the world, and having one of you gone is like having an arm gone or my brain gone.. The marriages, former followers say, can be used as a tool to keep girls in the Kingston Group, known among younger members as The Order. For their part, the brides sometimes see legal marriages as a way to avoid becoming polygamists later (and consequently being matched with a husband perhaps twice their age) or a means to escape their parents crowded households. Former members of the sect say there may be dozens or even hundreds more marriage certificates at county clerk offices across the West. When someone is interested in marriage, the process is something more like a job interview than a courtship. He vowed never again to commit incest or have sex with an underage girl. To go to Colorado, DeRieux said, she and her fianc drove to Price, where they jumped into a 15-passenger van carrying their parents, the other two sets of brides and grooms and their parents. He was taking off his belt. Youre just supposed to get married as young as you can, said the now-26-year-old. Johnson maintained that The Orders vast array of businesses which includes a grocery store, pawn shops, a garbage disposal business, an insurance company, a politically-influential biofuels plant, and a high-end firearms manufacturer employs individuals of various racial and ethnic minorities. Brother Elden died of penile cancer in 1948, despite the best efforts of some family members to burn away the cancer using acid. (Jessicas dad and the young man had taken courses together at the University of Utah.) Ron Tucker went so far as to call his former brethren white supremacists, and ten times more racist than your run-of-the-mill skinhead. A juvenile. Utah meteorologist makes a special forecast, Tammy Daybell may have been restrained when she died, Utah medical examiner says, How newest signee Dawson Baker will fit with BYU basketball, Provo culture, Flooding, avalanches impact communities in Utah as record temperatures continue, South end of Great Salt Lake up nearly 4 feet since berm raised in February. "He said, `You can leave, but you can never come back.' Parole board hearing officer Kent Jones said the evidence showed that Kingston forced himself upon a girl who was repulsed by him. Desert Tech and its rifles have been featured on Fox News, Mythbusters, Daredevil and The Blacklist, among other TV shows. A review of wedding certificates shows how the teen marriages are sanctioned at the highest levels of the Kingston Group. He told her he believed one did not need to practice polygamy to reach heaven. Their trials are scheduled for May. John Daniel Kingston, who according to court testimony once had 14 wives, was on hand in 2011, when his sons held an open house at the Washakie production plant in Plymouth near Interstate 15 and the Idaho line. But given that the Kingstons command an estimated 6,000 adherents, boast a business empire reportedly worth as much as $1 billion and have outlasted myriad bouts with law enforcement and the press, these dreams of world domination may be less delusional than they first seem. Hospital harm., While part of The Order, Val Snow, a twenty-something gay man with a wry sense of humor, believed being gay was like spitting in the eye of God. Snow is the son of Daniel Kingston, whom he paints as a little man with a lot of power.. The girl's voice cracked throughout her testimony and she cried openly when Box Elder County Attorney Jon Bunderson asked her to identify the man who hit her. Johnson did not provide the raw data to support those statistics. Theyre basically the Utah Mafioso of the white power world, Browning told Intelligence Report. Rolwing also referenced a 2016 federal raid on Washakie offices in South Salt Lake that prosecutors have alleged the defendants knew about in advance. She is the fifth of her mothers 12 children. Valdez based his decision on the girls testimony coupled with other voices, including that of half sibling Mary Ann Kingston, who was belt-whipped by Kingston in 1998. The girl, who as an adult would unsuccessfully sue the clan, then walked miles to the nearest gas station, where she called the police. Marriage preparation can accelerate at puberty. She was right there, Brewer said. David Kingston's 16-year-old wife was the daughter of another brother, John Daniel Kingston, who was sentenced to 28 weeks in jail for severely beating his daughter after she attempted. The letter asserts that one of the earliest members of the church was a Native American man and that the Co-op, as it is sometimes called, has been the victim of prejudice and harassment by Utahs majority religion (i.e., the LDS church) because of the formers progressive ideas.