Ortell died in 1987, but his progeny continued the polygamy, the inbreeding and the marriages to young female teens that he instituted. He told her he believed one did not need to practice polygamy to reach heaven. Supposedly, LaDonna had a dream wherein it was revealed that anyone who left The Order would be tainted by black blood. She also is a star of "Escaping Polygamy." Modern interpretations of this passage vary, but The Order apparently takes quite literally this idea of blackness being a sign of iniquity. The name is Kingston, sir, and these kids have a right to their true name, Valdez told Kingston, adding that bearing their fathers name would ensure their inheritance rights. Utah District Court Judge Ben Hadfield sentences John Daniel Kingston, who pleaded no contest to having whipped 16-year-old daughter for fleeing arranged polygamous marriage with her uncle, David . The Tuckers think this is all hogwash now, though they were programmed to believe it at the time. Her husband, John Daniel Kingston, told his children to marry up, she said, meaning marry into a well-regarded family in the Kingston Group. But moving forward isn't always easy. Kingston Has Trouble Remembering Some Children's Names on Stand John Daniel Kingston did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday. No recordings or photos were allowed during the ceremony. In April Valdez's son, Tito, was arrested for disorderly conduct after a protest outside the courthouse. . Spokesmen for both the U.S. State Department and for Picatinny Arsenal could neither verify nor deny Youngs claims. Kollene's father, John Daniel Kingston has 14 wives, and she is the fifth of her mother Shirley Hansen's 12 children. Romero has said her concern is for all girls, not just those in polygamous sects. The son of Pauls sister Rachel herself a daughter of Ortell and LaDonna Kingston Young was the only current member of the Kingston clan, out of the many contacted for this story, who consented to a live, on-the-record interview. Kingston has about 120 children from polygamous relationships with more than a dozen women. All Rights Reserved, Polygamist faces trial in daughters beating. 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. The younger girl will see her mother during counseling sessions and have supervised visits with her siblings. John Daniel Kingston seen here in 1999, pleading no contest to beating his 16-year-old daughter after she attempted to flee an arranged marriage with her uncle David, Kingston's brother. It passed a bill adding forced marriage into the states definition of sexual abuse. 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. Our website includes affiliate links, which means we get a small commission -- at no additional cost to you -- for each qualifying purpose. Snow says she chose to get married to escape an abusive living situation. He vowed never again to commit incest or have sex with an underage girl. My 4-year-old comes to me and says she has to find out her No. Incest Trial Sheds Light on Polygamy in Utah - Los Angeles Times It advertised at Utah Jazz home games and on game broadcasts. Kingston's attorney, Daniel Irvin, argued that his client had done nothing wrong and was being persecuted for his. "He said, `You can leave, but you can never come back.' Some former teenage Kingston Group brides acknowledge they werent forced to marry; they made a choice. The couples divorce became final in 2011. CNN. Their trials are scheduled for May. During an interview with this reporter, Lu Ann Kingston, whose defiance of the cult led to the conviction of her former spiritual husband Jeremy, recalled that Order members saw intermarriage as a way to keep the bloodline pure., All outsiders are considered to be beneath Order members, she explained. Irvin said the girls testimony was all over the place and that she admitted lying to protect people she liked while also lying to hurt those she didnt. Yeah, I believe in it, he said. According to church lore, The Order came into existence when founder Charles Elden Kingston saw Jesus in the mountains above the familys settlement in Bountiful, Utah, inspiring him to create the DCCS in 1935. If that child comes to her at age 16 wanting to marry, she said, she will have questions. Their cousin Amanda Kingston is the daughter of Verl Kingston and granddaughter of Ortell Kingston. 1 choice was not her fathers. Lawful marriage and the way it binds people together legally and financially, Hansen said, is seen as a way to keep the more rebellious girls in the Kingston Group. Irvin argued the physical abuse described during the trial occurred several years ago, before the Mary Ann Kingston case, when a court ordered his client not to physically discipline his children. Their divorce was finalized in July 2012 a little more than three years after they married. At age 15, Snow wanted out of the Kingston Group. A year ago she and her nine siblings were placed in state custody after allegations of abuse. Her top choice the one whom she felt God told her to marry was a man five years older than she and to whom she was related on both sides of her family tree. It was just the best choice, some say, among their bad options. Their grooms averaged 20 years and 18 days. For now, all three men remain in jail. She says life in the clan wasn't easy. or superseded by additional information. (Photo courtesy Shanell DeRieux) Shanell DeRieux, then called Shanell Snow, center, stands with her mother, Shirley Hansen, right, and her father, John Daniel Kingston, in this photo from her legal wedding day, July 3, 2008, in Grand Junction, Colo. Also pictured are DeRiux's now-ex-husband and ex-mother-in-law. In Utah, Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, plans a bill that would raise the minimum marriage age to 18. The attorney general's office is concerned about a possible conflict of interest because witnesses in that case also are members of the Kingston clan. Revenues typically go into a church account. A loyal Order member for years, he lost his faith and ended up leaving the Order over a curse of sorts, leveled at his family by LaDonna. When they arrived in Grand Junction, all three couples filled out the papers for a marriage license. MaryAnn Kingston's attorneys, John Morris, Bill Mark and Doug White, issued a . He even had charts showing who were the higher families in the sect so his daughters knew where to look for a mate. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Donate to the newsroom now. She also felt a religious call to wed and saw herself as mature enough to undertake such a commitment. The company was founded in 2007 with an investment from family members. The U.S. Department of Justice alleges Washakie made almost no biofuel and instead bought and sold products and fabricated papers to collect a tax rebate from the federal government. Tucker recounted the clans version of the apocalypse, the End of the World War, a riff on a prophecy some ascribe to Joseph Smith, called The White Horse Prophecy. Still, he conceded that some Order members may have prejudiced beliefs because in our organization people have freedom of choice.. David was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the incest, but served only four before being paroled. Control of The Order then passed to Ortells well-educated son Paul Kingston, one of several lawyers in a cult whose members dress normally and try not to draw attention to themselves. Jessica Kingston didnt want to be a polygamist. The memorial was held in Maxwell Park in Hildale, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015. She said the marriage disintegrated when her husband married spiritually one of her half-sisters, who was 22 at the time. For instance, as an Amazon Associate, Religion News Blog earns from qualifying purchases. Similarly, his older brother John Daniel Kingston has had 14 wives, four of them his half-sisters. 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. Johnson also acknowledged hearing family lore dating to the Depression era of Order families burying fetuses from late-term miscarriages on their respective properties.. His seven sons and two daughters by LaDonna Peterson, the second of his 13 wives, are reputed to be the inner circle that runs the cult. She says marriages can be used in The Order to gain or maintain favor among the parents of the brides and grooms. When Jessica Kingston was 15, her father told her she had four choices apparently the number of suitors who had spoken to him about marrying her. Tucker is another of Ortells many sons, though not from the favored wife, LaDonna. Judge closes the case against Kingston and Foster - Religion News Blog . Its all political, Jessica said. A retired Arizona law enforcement officer, Browning is the president and founder of the Skinhead Intelligence Network and is in charge of security for the A&E show, where his wife Tawni works as the casting producer. Jessica Kingston wore a white dress. She grew up in Woods Cross and hated The Order all her life, she said in a recent interview. The bride was 16. The term cult has a precise definition or rather, Religion News Blog is a service provided by. But Thursday, the younger girl recounted two instances last year when she was spanked or thrown down the stairs by her father. Jeremy was nearly 10 years her senior at the time. Accounts of clan babies being born with congenital defects and other problems abound, including dwarfism, albinism and children born minus fingernails or without genitals. 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. In one, Ortell warns that there is a movement afoot that wants to homogenize the people and make one race, by mixing all the races up. The parents of the 16-year-olds also completed a form granting their permission. Nor are youths from polygamous sects the only teens who marry in Utah. Marriages of half-sisters, first cousins, nieces and aunts are part of its religious beliefs. Whether she gives her blessing, she said, will depend on the answers to those questions. deductible, Report a missed paper by emailingsubscribe@sltrib.comor calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or emailsubscribe@sltrib.com. Speaking of which: One way in which you can support us at no additional cost to you is by shopping at Amazon.com. The girl said her father ordered her into his truck and they drove north. A body of research suggests the teenage brain is not developed enough to make the kind of long-term decision needed for marriage. The four sisters from Escaping Polygamy, Jessica, Andrea, Shanell, and Kollene Kingston are the daughters of John Daniel Kingston and granddaughters of John Ortell Kingston. Kingston faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The move would have allowed the company to collect tax credits on biodiesel it did not actually produce. 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. Young denied that The Order was racist or taught any form of bigotry, and said he had people of all races working for him. Or leave. The incest came to light after the girl tried to escape the arranged celestial marriage an illegal marriage, sans license. Its ominous-sounding moniker, The Order, is a reference to the United Order, a quasi-utopian society proposed by LDS-founder Joseph Smith, and practiced in some Mormon communities under the leadership of early church president Brigham Young. 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. Judge ends child-welfare case against polygamist Kingston 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. Elden had predicted that he would be resurrected from the dead, so clan members kept his body on ice for three days, to no avail. Dermen, also known as Levon Termendzhyan, has been indicted on 10 counts of fraud and money laundering. They fled and contacted relatives, who called the Division of Child and Family Services. It still hasnt been explained how anyone at Washakie would have known about the raid. Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune But for their part, The Order and other fundamentalist sects believe the LDS church exists in a state of apostasy for abandoning what they see as a bedrock principle of their faith. Jessicas father relented during the meeting and gave his approval for his daughter to marry her No. During his parole hearing in August, he admitted for the first time that he had had sex with the girl. The groom wore a suit. Rachel Kingston, 63, was charged with five counts alleging fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Kingston brothers Isaiah (left) and Jacob co-own WRE or Washakie Renewable Energy, which produces 10 milion gallons of biofuel. All of the gay people would definitely be the first to go, he said. 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. She ran away several times, but was always sent back to her family. Four of those appear to be couples from polygamous groups. One brother, John Daniel Kingston, was taken to court for neglecting this children. According to church lore, Charles "Elden" Kingston founded The Order after seeing Jesus in a cave. She favors raising the legal marriage age to 18. The Order can rightly claim discrimination by mainstream Mormonism, but this is due to its embrace of polygamy, which the LDS church officially abandoned in 1890 in order for Utah to become a state. DeRieux was photographed in Layton, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. After driving some 80 miles to the ranch near Plymouth, her father ordered her into a barn. Another of the cults teachings was that soy can make you gay, an anti-government conspiracy theory popular in some right-wing circles. Not every Kingston Group follower marries as a juvenile. That daughter was born with a form of heart disease and had long acted responsibly in caring for it, Hansen said. No child deserves to be beaten or threatened with being beaten, and when they do, they deserve the help of our court, said 3rd District Judge Andrew Valdez. 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The relations are distant enough they wouldnt encounter any of Utahs prohibitions on marriage between siblings, first cousins or aunts/nephews and uncles/nieces. 2K views, 27 likes, 7 loves, 18 comments, 0 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Dbstvstlucia: DBS MORNING SHOW & OBITUARIES 25TH APRIL 2023 APRIL 2023 No. For the marriages performed in Utah, Bill W. Stoddard signed as the officiant until his death in March. In a December hearing, federal prosecutors disclosed they planned to indict new defendants by mid-January. Girls who agree to become plural wives tend to be more devout and usually live in homes without their husband, thus receiving less scrutiny. Information in the story may be outdated Stephanie Mattingly is the daughter of John Daniel Kingston and Heidi Mattingly. (Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The judge gave the couple until June 11 to request new birth certificates. Wednesday's hearing was attended by about 10 members of Tapestry of Polygamy, a support group of disaffected former polygamists. But I do have children with other women., Asked if two women named were in fact his first cousins, Young paused, finally replying, I guess Im curious as to what youre trying to get at here.. She wasnt allowed to leave the house until she decided whom to marry. Stephanie Mattingly: "You start to teach yourself, this is what I'm going to learn to, like, I'm going to learn to like this, I'm going to learn to accept this, and this is what I'm going to do.". More troubling, during a contentious 2004 custody case that ensued when Jessica and her sister Andrea fled Daniel Kingstons household, a judge in the case reportedly was the subject of a death threat, allegedly from Kingston clan members. "He told me to take off my jacket. [W]e directly condemn in action and in words, racist, homophobic or hateful actions against any group or individual, Johnson wrote. ". Jessica is hardly the only girl to make such a choice. She is the fifth of her mothers 12 children. Among those Kingston Group brides who marry as minors and for whom The Tribune was able to find birthdates, the average age was 16 years, 7 months and 12 days. When a girl doesnt want to be a polygamist, that information is shared among boys and men in the sect. A 1999 Salt Lake Tribune article mapped the Kingstons incestuous family tree, quoting one of Ortells 65 kids, ex-Order member Connie Rugg as saying, My father experimented [with] inbreeding with his cattle and then he turned to his children.. A juvenile. Johnson did not provide the raw data to support those statistics. Once the couples signed the certificates and turned them back in to the Mesa County clerk, they were legally married. 1 choice [of whom to marry] in The Order, Jessica Kingston said. Chinese people were called stupid, and Mexicans were dirty, said Lu Ann, adding, because of their skin.. 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. From Hansens perspective, the entire Kingston Group marriage process is like being told you can have anything to eat as long as it comes from a certain table. (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sally Kingston, the wife of Jacob Kingston, leaves the federal courthouse, after a hearing for Jacob and Isaiah Kingston on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. Eventually, there was a meeting between Jessica Kingston, her parents and Paul Kingston. At 17, she agreed to marry a man in his early 20s. The couple have since divorced. The now-20-year-old said she and her husband have started a family of their own. A nationwide debate is underway about teens, especially girls, marrying. New allegations of abuse in the polygamous Kingston family Had Snow been a better behaved, more devout member of the Kingston Group, Hansen said, there may not have been a push to have her legally marry at 16. 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. According to Montana court documents, the couple had an argument at their apartment and DeRieuxs then-husband threw her down a flight of stairs. He served one day in jail. Boys began to show interest in Julie as she matured, but Paul, as the clans leader, warned them away, because of Julies black blood. 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. Her husband knew she didnt want him to have a plural spouse, she said, but his father told him he needed to have one. 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. Three weeks after Snow married a 21-year-old man in Davis County, Hansens 17-year-old daughter legally married a 24-year-old man in Salt Lake County. There was also testimony, during one hearing, that someone in the Kingston clan wanted to blow up the courthouse. At age 10 she worked full time and helped support her mother. Jacob Kingston has filed a motion for pretrial release and offered to post $10 million in bail. Rolwing said John Daniel Kingston has some amorphous stewardship over Washakie Renewable Energy.. Polygamy is outlawed in Utah, both by the states constitution, and in statute, where it is a third-degree felony, with a possible punishment of five years in prison. Scott remembered that Ortell had an answer for that question. Nevertheless, former members of The Order say that incest and racism are inextricably linked in The Orders teachings. In an analysis written in 2015, a University of Maryland sociologist found that nationwide 37 percent of people who marry before age 20 divorce in the first 10 years. DeRieux did marry the next year at age 18 to a cousin who was 19. Her parents and siblings eventually left as well. Daniel., That prompted Valdez to tell her, Call him Dad. Stephanie Mattingly is the daughter of John Daniel Kingston and Heidi Mattingly. "Warren Jeffs' 'lost boys' find themselves in strange world". The Intelligence Report is the SPLC's award-winning magazine. Irvin, Kingstons attorney, said his client would focus now on healing and reuniting his family. 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. only for your personal, non-commercial use. Mark Hansen, Fosters attorney, said Kingstons actions fall within a Utah law allowing corporal punishment. Rolwing said Rachel Kingston told other employees there was mold in the offices and sent them home while she destroyed evidence before IRS and FBI agents arrived. Girls in polygamous Kingston Group continue to marry as young as 15 Kingston, 44, pleaded no contest in April to child abuse, a third-degree felony, for belt-whipping his then 16-year-old daughter after she fled from an arranged polygamous marriage to his brother last year. Ron Kingston says The Orders leadership has too much to lose for something like that to happen. The lawyers words call to mind another heavenly curse, described in 2 Nephi, Chapter 5 of the Book of Mormon, where God caused a skin of blackness to come upon a group called the Lamanites, supposedly ancestors of Native Americans. Over the years, state law enforcement and the courts have sporadically addressed the incest in the Kingston ranks. Addressing her father, she said: Im sorry you had to go through this, too, Dad . He had arranged for a banner to be placed over a bridge there. 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.