Utah jurors deliver blow to polygamist

A Mormon with five wives and 29 children could face up to 25 years in jail after being found guilty of bigamy in America's biggest polygamy case in nearly five decades.

Tom Green, 52, has also been charged with first-degree felony rape of a child for allegedly having sexual relations in 1986 with Linda Kunz, his first plural wife, when she was just 13.

All of Green's wives and at least six of the 25 children who live with him on a compound in a remote desert area in western Utah were present in the courtroom when the verdict was read out by the jury shortly after midnight on Friday.

The verdict was cheered by many spectators at the Provo court, but Green's wives, three of whom are pregnant and all of whom have pledged fidelity to their husband, broke down when the jury revealed their decision. Hannah Bjorkman, 24, pregnant with her first child by Green, sobbed uncontrollably. 'It's just not right. He's guilty of spending his entire life living for his family,' she wept.

The wives, mostly in their twenties and composed of two sets of sisters and Kunz, expresssed confusion and fear in contemplating a life without their patriarch, an existence difficult enough already in the wind-ravaged compound of dilapidated trailers that form Greenhaven, the Green family's homestead at the far western edge of Utah.

The wives have stated that they chose their life out of love for Green and his lifestyle and claim that, if their husband is imprisoned, they will be forced to apply for commercial driver licences so they can work rotating days as long-haul semi-truck drivers. 'My biggest fear is that all our children might not see their father for 20 years,' said Bjorkman, who was led from the court in tears by Green, distraught at the thought of giving birth without her husband. 'His kids would all be grown and gone by then,' she added.

In the past, the wives have given birth to their babies at the home of Green's mother in Salt Lake City with the help of a midwife. Now the women plan to deliver in a hospital in Delta, 100 miles away from home.

Green, who will remain free until sentencing takes place, said he believed the jury of five women and three men, who reached their verdict after just three hours of deliberation, were swayed by emotion. 'I think it's wrong. I just can't imagine,' he said, pledging to appeal the finding. 'We produce damn good children - children I would put up against any children in this society'.

Green vowed that the verdict would not affect the way he chose to live his life and angrily denied the prosecution's claims that he deliberately married young women in their teens while they were eligible for welfare benefit, divorcing them when they grew up.

Sentencing for the lesser charges of bigamy and one count of failing to pay child support has been set for 27 June, but no trial date has been set yet for the greater charge of rape, which carries a prison term of five years to life. Plural marriages were common in Utah in the 1800s but they were banned in the early 1890s as a condition of statehood and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as the Mormon Church is formally called, now excommunicates members who practise polygamy.

However, Utah has no specific anti-polygamy laws and the prosecutors were forced to combine the state's bigamy law and its definition of common-law marriage to successfully bring Green to book.

Utah attorney general Mark Shurtleff greeted the verdict with delight, saying that he had been shocked by the widespread sexual abuse, including rape, incest and child abuse, which he uncovered working on Green's case. Shurtleff is now planning to ask the state for funds to hire more staff to step up investigations into sex crimes within the state's estimated 30,000 underground polygamous societies.

Green, who testified he was only married to the women in a spiritual sense and that he is a 'fundamentalist' Mormon who accepts the early teachings of the Church, such as polygamy, supports his wives and children by selling magazines around the western United States.

He maintains he has been victimised because of his willingness to talk about his lifestyle, a claim supported by the fact that he was charged only after appearing on a number of national talk shows, including The Jerry Springer Show, boasting about his extended family.

'Tom Green will use and bilk and abuse the laws of this state when it suits his purposes,' prosecutor David Leavitt told the jury. 'And when he doesn't want the laws to apply to him, then there's not a hair thin enough that he won't split to try to justify his position.

'He confessed to a crime on talk show after talk show after talk show,' Leavitt added, pointing out that the lifestyle Green vigorously defended on national television was very different from the one he admitted to in the Provo courtroom. 'What happens when he comes in and talks to eight people who have authority over him? The story changes,' he said.

But Green's attorney, John Bucher, argued that the state had targeted Green simply because he embarrassed Utah in the national media. 'He shot his mouth off, he proclaimed to the world rather than hide as the rest of them do, he stuck out like a sore thumb,' Bucher said.

Although some of his wives are distraught at the ruling, Allison Ryan is jubillant. Now 27, Ryan was 16 when she was married to Green for several months in 1989 and alleged that her sister, Andrea, was just 12 when Green involved her in a sexual relationship. 'His performances in the courtroom have been Oscar-winning,' said Ryan. 'He makes me sick. I mean, I was 16, he was 45. There's no excuse.'

'He's a damn child molester, and that's all there is to it,' added her sister, now 23, whose brother, 17-year-old Chris Ryan, was another to congratulate the jury on their verdict. 'This guy says he believes in plural marriage, but he just hides behind that belief to cover up the fact that he is a paedophile,' he said.

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