a nice little run down on "the Bishop's Records", ie some imporant stuff,
here....
The bishop's records are the states prime source of information that old dudes are hittin' (figuratively) younger women. Recognizing that the State really can't prosecute a fellow for having sex in Utah with a girl who is now 18 and doesn't complain (in the legal sense)....
....in summary, there's some icky stuff. There's some really normal stuff. There's some stuff which isn't really that icky but is possibly illegal (like 19 year olds with 16 year old brides but no marriage license). Then there's stuff which isn't normal and also isn't so much icky as indicative that these folks have a very different view of what it means to be married, like one husband in his 60's with multiple wives over the age of 70.
and then there's stuff which is icky and quite possibly (although not definitely) illegal, like:
Quote:
So what we have here is basically four cases of older men married to under-aged girls, assuming they didn't file parents' permission at the courthouse or they weren't legally married in another state:
Nephi Jeffs 38
Elizabeth Jessop 16
Lehi Alred 28
Rachel Alred 16
Abram Jeffs 35
Suzanne Jeffs 16
Leroy J. Steed 40
Elizabeth Jessop, 16
Possibly:
24 year old Joseph's 18 year old wife Naomi who had a 7 month old in March of '07. Assuming that child is hers (there's also a 10 month old, and an older wife), is full term, and she wasn't 18 years and 11 months at the time, she might have been under-aged at the time of conception.
|
four dudes, possibly five, that may well be deserving of some sort of a charge...that is if marriage in these cases includes not just the spiritual but also the physical consummation (something we can't say with certainty).
and you've got possibly 4 girls, maybe 5, who are under the age of 18 and subject to what is possibly sexual abuse. I wouldn't argue with anyone that says that these 4 or 5 girls should be taken and that the situations should be investigated further, but that hasn't happened here, and this isn't what the State is arguing.