Flamboyant Polygamist Gets 5 Years

A Utah polygamist who all but dared prosecutors to arrest him was sentenced to five years in prison Friday on felony bigamy charges, while his five wives and some of his 30 children wept in the courtroom.

Tom Green, 53, also was ordered to pay $78,000 to the state in restitution for welfare payments to his 25 children who are younger than 18.

The case was the first prosecution of a polygamist in Utah in 50 years and has focused an uncommon spotlight on plural marriage in the state.

Green was silent as Judge Guy Burningham announced the sentence on four counts of bigamy and one count of criminal non-support of a child. He was sentenced to five years on each count, but the judge ordered the sentences to be served concurrently. Prosecutor David Leavitt had asked for a 10-year sentence.

Green testified for an hour Friday and remained defiant about what he considers to be his religious beliefs. After asking his wives and seven of their children to stand in the courtroom, he pointed and said: “I am not ashamed of these people, and I’m not ashamed of my relationship with them.”

Each of his wives, whom he married as teenagers, took the stand and asked for leniency. In letters to the judge, they pleaded with the court to consider the effect Green’s imprisonment would have on his family and its ability to take care of itself.

“Tom’s children are very close to him,” Linda Green wrote. “I believe they would suffer emotionally and mentally by his being taken away. I worry that our children will learn to disrespect government for generations to come because of having their father sent to prison for his religious beliefs.”

The courtroom in Provo was filled with a smattering of polygamists supporting Green and a small group of anti-polygamy activists. In his arguments, Leavitt spoke about the history of polygamy in Utah. Once a tenet of the Mormon religion, it was outlawed by the church in 1890.

Leavitt, who is the brother of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and himself a descendant of polygamists, received death threats during the trial. After Friday’s hearing, he said that Green had not been singled out.

“Whenever someone gives me a provable case of any type, of any kind, I’m going to prosecute it,” he said.

To Green and others, plural marriage is a central belief in what they call fundamentalist Mormonism. An estimated 40,000 polygamists are living in Utah and small enclaves throughout the West, mostly in isolation and secrecy.

But Green’s flamboyance shocked Utah law enforcement into action. He frequently appeared on TV talk shows and was the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, touting his lifestyle. During his trial in May, Leavitt said that Green might never have been arrested had he not maintained such a high profile.

“I think Tom did us a service. He went to the forefront; he displayed himself,” said Rowenna Erickson, an anti-polygamy activist who attended Friday’s hearing. “It gave people an opportunity to research this, and we were able to bring attention to the abuses of polygamy. I feel good about the sentence.”

Green’s attorney, John Bucher, said he would appeal the conviction.

Green is still awaiting trial on child rape charges in connection with his marriage to Linda Kunz. Prosecutors said Kunz was 13 when she conceived her first child with Green. She is now pregnant with her seventh.