Utah AG investigates statements made by Winston Blackmore

Vancouver Sun
March 19, 2014

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/03/18/utah-ag-investigates-statements-made-by-winston-blackmore/

Winston Blackmore in Vancouver in 2012 to appear in Federal Tax Court. He lost his case against Revenue Canada, which said that he had under-estimated his income by $1.8 million.

Winston Blackmore leaving Creston courthouse after being charged with one count of polygamy in 2009.

Canadian fundamentalist Mormon leader Winston Blackmore admitted under oath late last month in Utah that at least 10 of his 26 wives were under the age of 18 when he ‘married’ them in religious ceremonies.

Three of those child ‘brides’ were 15, another was 16.

Blackmore had voluntarily gone to Salt Lake City to give a deposition in a civil case that involves property held by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in a fund called the United Effort Plan Trust.  Blackmore didn’t have a lawyer at his side when he testified.

On Monday, a spokeswoman for the Utah Attorney General’s Office told reporter Ben Winslow from Fox News that it would look into what Blackmore said under oath.

“We are currently investigating the allegations,” Utah attorney general’s spokeswoman Missy Larsen said. “Attorney General [Sean] Reyes does not view illegal activities that target children and other vulnerable populations lightly and will prosecute criminal activity when appropriate.”

The B.C. attorney general’s ministry has been informed about Blackmore’s deposition. Special prosecutor Peter Wilson, who was appointed in January 2012 to look into allegations of sexual abuse in Bountiful, is away until March 24 and not available for comment.

And Attorney General Suzanne Anton refuses to comment. In a statement provided by her communications staff, she said:  “As you are aware, an independent special prosecutor has been appointed. It would not be appropriate for me to comment.”

Here’s what I wrote about Blackmore’s deposition last week. For more about Blackmore, Bountiful and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Canada, go to http://www.vancouversun.com/polygamy.

Ten of fundamentalist Mormon leader Winston Blackmore’s 22 wives were underage when he married them; three were only 15.

The former Canadian bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints admitted to it under oath, according to the transcript of his Feb. 28 deposition in Salt Lake City for a civil case involving church property.

Blackmore readily admitted to having married one 15-year-old, whom he repeatedly described as being “just about 16.” He was 42 at the time.

But Blackmore insisted:

“I never touched anybody before they were 16 . . . .

“I never had any conjugal relationship. I mean I held a hand, but I would not touch anybody before they were (16)”

When asked whether any of his other 22 wives had been 18 or younger, Blackmore snapped: “Are you the media? I mean do I have to display my personal family life here? I mean they were in the 1990 era, earlier than 1990. It would be two or three of them.”

Far from being only two or three, lawyer Alan Mortensen read off the names of nine other women who Blackmore admitted were 18 or younger when he married them in religious ceremonies in the United States and Canada. Blackmore said all but two of the marriages involving child brides were performed by then-FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs. (Jeffs was succeeded by his son, Warren, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting two of his 12-year-old “brides.”)

Blackmore was clearly taken off-guard by the questioning.

He had appeared without a lawyer and had gone voluntarily as a witness in a civil case involving church property held in the United Effort Plan trust.

Blackmore was the bishop responsible for the congregations in Bountiful, B.C. as well as the Alberta communities of Rosemary and Cardston — as well as being a trustee for the United Effort Plan — from the mid-1980s until Warren Jeffs kicked him out of the FLDS in 2002.

Since then, Blackmore has continued as the spiritual leader to about 500 people in those communities.

Because the deposition was voluntary and done under oath, Blackmore’s statements are not only public, they could be used by criminal prosecutors in both Utah and British Columbia.

Blackmore was asked by Mortensen whether he had petitioned Utah’s juvenile court for permission to marry any of the girls who were under the age of 18.

“No,” Blackmore replied.

“And you understand, don’t you, under the laws of Utah that if you had gone to a clerk to obtain a marriage licence, you would have been denied one?” Mortensen asked, referring to that state’s anti-polygamy law.

“There was never any intention to go and I did not understand that, no,” replied Blackmore.

“You were legally married to Jane Blackmore at the time?”

“Yeah.”

After confirming that Blackmore never obtained marriage licences, never presented the underage girls to court or government officials for permission to marry, never obtained the written consent of their parents and never verified the girls’ ages before marrying them, Mortensen suggested to Blackmore the marriages were “without the sanction or protection” of either the state of Utah or the province of British Columbia where the consent of a Supreme Court judge is required for the marriage of a child under the age of 16 and consent of both parents is required for those under 19.

“The province of British Columbia, I had no concern about them,” Blackmore replied. “And I know nothing about your rules.”

In addition to admitting to having married underage girls, Blackmore acknowledged that as the FLDS bishop he also performed plural marriages involving girls under the age of 19.

But after Warren Jeffs forced him out of the FLDS in 2002, Blackmore said he has refused to perform any plural marriages involving girls under 18.

“I encourage someone if they want to be someone’s plural wife ­— and they do, there’s lots of people that do — they get (to be) 18, they get their parents and then they come talk … They come and talk to me if they want to have me approve it,” Blackmore said.

Blackmore’s lack of concern about British Columbia is well-founded.

In 1992, the B.C. attorney general refused to lay charges of polygamy or sexual exploitation against Blackmore and another church elder, Dalmon Oler, because of concerns that Canada’s anti-polygamy law might be found to be unconstitutional.

It wasn’t until January 2009 that Blackmore and then-FLDS bishop James Oler (Dalmon’s son) were each charged with one count of polygamy. Those charges were subsequently dropped after Blackmore’s lawyer successfully argued that the special prosecutor who recommended the charges had been improperly hired.

In 2010, the provincial government launched a constitutional reference case in the B.C. Supreme Court to determine whether the federal law was valid. The law was upheld in a decision released in November 2011.

Another special prosecutor, Peter Wilson, was hired in January 2012. Wilson is still considering whether any charges ought to be laid against Blackmore and others in Bountiful, having only recently received more files from the RCMP, whose investigation continues.

It’s not clear whether Wilson is aware of Blackmore’s deposition. Wilson is away from his office until March 24 and could not be reached.

However, officials at both the Ministry of Children and Family Development and the Attorney General’s Ministry have seen the transcript.

It’s likely that if Blackmore had a lawyer with him, the lawyer would have advised him not to answer the questions on the grounds that it might incriminate him.

It’s a protection that his lawyers sought when he was in Federal Tax Court in 2012, where he unsuccessfully tried to appeal Revenue Canada’s decision that he had defrauded the government of $1.8 million in taxes.

Yet, during the Utah deposition, Blackmore answered all the questions. Perhaps he was emboldened by a December decision in the case involving Kody Brown and his wives — who star in the reality show Sister Wives — which struck down sections of Utah’s polygamy law.

Perhaps Blackmore still harbours the desire to become the FLDS prophet.

But for whatever reason, Blackmore’s testimony comes practically gift-wrapped and handed to prosecutors in British Columbia and Utah. Finally, maybe they will need to take action against this polygamist.