Name raising eyebrows
 
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
 
Ironically, women and children from the FLDS Church's Texas ranch in Eldorado are being housed in neighboring Tom Green County — which shares the name of one of Utah's most notorious polygamists.

One of Utah's highest profile cases involving polygamy came in 2000, when then-Juab County Attorney David Leavitt filed criminal charges against polygamist Tom Green.

For years, Green lived in a ramshackle compound of trailer homes in remote Utah. It was a place he dubbed "Greenhaven." Outspoken in his belief of polygamy, Green appeared on numerous TV talk shows and talked to hundreds of reporters — which ultimately put him under Leavitt's scrutiny.

Green, now 59, had five wives at the time and dozens of children — and was charged with bigamy, rape of a child and criminal nonsupport.

The rape of a child charge stemmed from his marriage to his wife Linda, whom he was alleged to have married when she was only 12. He was subsequently convicted of bigamy for his "marriages" to the other four women. The criminal nonsupport charge accused him of being a "deadbeat dad" and not paying child support.

In a sensational trial that drew media attention from all over the globe, Green was ultimately convicted on all counts. The trial was not without consequences: Leavitt was voted out of office shortly afterward. (He is now running for the 3rd Congressional District seat.)

Green was sentenced to up to 15 years in the Utah State Prison. He was considered a model inmate, and the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole decided to release him last year.

During his parole hearing in 2004, he stopped short of denouncing polygamy.

"Every one of us must be responsible for our actions and decisions," Green said at the time. "We shouldn't delude ourselves with vain crusades or fancy ourselves to be victims or a persecuted minority to justify the things that deep down we had just made up our minds to do."

One of Green's wives, who left him shortly after he went to prison, spoke out against his release, fearing he would indoctrinate her children into polygamy.

Upon leaving prison, Green issued a statement saying he would be doing no more media interviews.

"I'm very grateful to the people of the state of Utah for all they have done to help prepare myself, and other inmates, to not reoffend and to function appropriately in society," he wrote in a 2007 statement released through the prison. "I look forward to return to life in society and to begin carrying again the many responsibilities I have incurred."

Probation agents expressed concern that Green would go back to living polygamy. The parole board wrestled with the question of how much interest it should have in who Green has relationships with, but ultimately released him.

The Utah Sex Offender Registry lists him as currently living in Springville, where he is believed to be sharing a home with Linda. His other "wives" are believed to still be living nearby, but he vowed to not live with them — thus making him not guilty of bigamy again, he said.

The Web site for Tom Green County, Texas, says it got its name in honor of a Confederate brigadier general who fought in the Civil War.

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Monday, April 7, 2008
 
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