They did so July 3, 2008, in Grand Junction, Colo, where records show two other couples from the Kingston Group married that day. The plaintiffs filed what is called a qui tam lawsuit in which whistleblowers assist in pursuing individuals who commit fraud against the government. We dont expect any of the claims to prevail in a court of law.. Because of the clans distrust of banks, the Order had cash hidden all over the place, a poorly kept secret within the family. A review of wedding certificates shows how the teen marriages are sanctioned at the highest levels of the Kingston Group. Everyone in the Order knew that she controlled the purse strings for the operation but few were aware that she was sitting on a hidden stash of silver. Its unclear how much if any investigating has happened in the almost seven months since the lawsuit was filed. She called her sister-in-law Patty Kingston, who lived across town. We want to hear it. Former members estimate Paul has 30 wives and more than 50 children. Kingston had told gaming regulators in California. The suitor had asked her to dance a few times at The Orders youth social events. All I like to do is work on cars and hang out with friends and ride my ponies, he wrote one night on his MySpace page. He asked him if he was being obedient, then excused himself to talk to Stephens mother. I strongly believe they are an organized-crime family, Shurtleff says. One day, for laughs, he and his half brother Ron Tucker stole some napalm from an Order army-supply store, drew lines of it in the street and lit it on fire as cars drove by. But Jessicas No. I dont think theyre organized crime in that regard, but the racketeering statute defines it as any conspiracy or pattern of illegal activity done in concert with others. Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune. Log In Once logged in, you can add biography in the database. LDS Church wants to light up a temple in a place that prides itself on dark skies, For husband-and-wife team, this new restaurant is the culmination of a decadeslong dream, plural marriages that happen outside the law, two stars of the television show Escaping Polygamy,", Shanell DeRieux, a former Kingston Group member, stigmas that often come with being associated, Kent Johnson, a spokesman for the Davis County Cooperative Society. They seemed happy, Ron says. The father preferred another who had inquired about marrying Jessica. It felt like it was us against the world. His older brother Richard, a burly diesel mechanic, taught him how to fix cars. Paul Kingston, they said, has 17 wives and nearly 50 children. Come back, his dad will say. Older teenagers were crammed five and six to a room, sleeping on the floors of trailers. Three of his wives are his half-sisters. Over 75 years, the Kingstons have amassed a fortune worth an estimated $300 million, but the operation skirts the edges of the law. Members of The Order are taught they need to be in a plural marriage to reach the highest heaven. The Kingston Group is believed to have a few thousand members, mostly in Utah and Idaho. Andrea Johnson was buried on June 13, 1992, at the Bountiful Memorial Park. She was 68. It was all just innocent teenage stuff, recalls Ron, who has since left the clan. These days Stephen works on a cattle ranch near the Idaho border, just down the road from where he grew up. Their legal team includes a Boston law firm with expertise in qui tam lawsuits. They should refrain from this decision until they can be well informed to make a mature and thoughtful decision before entering into marriage.. For now, Utah law says a 15-year-old may marry with the consent of a parent or guardian and the permission of a juvenile court judge. The lawsuit from Michaels and the Nelsons asserts the defendants are liable for up to $27 million in damages and another $20 million in penalties. (Jessicas dad and the young man had taken courses together at the University of Utah.) While all that is happening, the potential bride is supposed to have been praying about whom to marry. With the Orders leaders taking so many wives for themselves, the clans younger men were often unable to find anyone to marry. Unlike other girls in the Order, Richaun was refined she didnt wear hand-me-downs, and at clan dances, a long line of boys waited to dance with her. She was definitely the pick of the litter, and thats why Paul got her, Ron recalls. One of them, Stephen Knight, made for the most unlikely of suspects. Johnson said the Davis County Cooperative Society takes no position on the issue. Carolyn Yvonne Kingston was born in 1938 in Elmo, Utah, to Charles Elden Kingston, and his first wife Ethel Gustafson, so she was the daughter of the first prophet of the Kingston Clan. If Paul Kingston or the designee signs off, the groom next goes to the girls father. The well-kept yellow house sat on the corner of a tidy cul-de-sac called South Bonner Circle surrounded by a black wrought-iron fence. Theyll do what they need to do to defend whats theirs.. It was also around then that Stephen, at the age of 14, began to see the clan for what it really was. (Photo courtesy of Kollene Snow) Kollene Snow, 16, poses in her dress before her 2009 marriage in West Valley City. Jessica as well as Snow, DeRieux and Hansen all favor raising the legal marriage age in Utah and other states to 18. If that father says yes, the groom talks to the girl. By our latest survey, his statement said, the majority of DCCS college students were not using government-funded financial aid, including many who would qualify if they had applied. I dont really have too many friends, but the ones I do, I wouldnt trade for anything., Among Stephens friends were two of his cousins, Luke and Scott Brown. After the boys were taken into custody, one of their first calls was to Stephen. He trained the women how to rip off the government, a scheme the Order called Bleeding the Beast. Jessica Kingston didnt want to be a polygamist. It would be several more years before Stephen learned that Paul Kingston was his father, and that his mother was just one of his dads many wives. In qui tam cases, the federal government can either join the plaintiffs in recouping losses and pursuing damages and fines, or let the plaintiffs prosecute the lawsuit on their own. The relations are distant enough they wouldnt encounter any of Utahs prohibitions on marriage between siblings, first cousins or aunts/nephews and uncles/nieces. Then their father said something they never expected. The . I could tell she loved him, and it seemed like he loved her too. Within a year, Paul Kingston would take a fourth wife. Another brother, Ben, showed him how to mend fences. The suit says sect members might have obtained tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars through false applications. They belonged to the Order and had toiled in the cult for years. During his tenure, some members have continued the practice of plural, and intra-family marriage,[3] although neither is practiced by the majority of members and the practice is not required to gain status in the group. A statement from the only higher education institution mentioned in the lawsuit, Salt Lake Community College, said it has not received any subpoenas or inquiries. Over the last four years, these audits have occurred for DCCS members at a rate 9.5 times higher than the average population. [9], Records show he signed as a witness on 4 lawful teenage marriages over a 20 year period. The woman who married in 2014 at age 16 and asked not to be identified is still with her husband. Then, moving quickly, the boy at the door let himself in and got to work. ", "Girls in polygamous Kingston Group continue to marry as young as 15, records show, sometimes leaving Utah to marry cousins", "Inside 'The Order,' One Mormon Cult's Secret Empire", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Elden_Kingston&oldid=1136713473, This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 19:29. The plans fizzled because her mother didnt believe DeRieux had received direction from God to marry the man. Now, two years later, Stephen still sleeps with a gun near his bed. But age alone wont determine her answer. Michaels and Mary Nelson describe similar experiences with their financial aid applications and awards. Her husband knew she didnt want him to have a plural spouse, she said, but his father told him he needed to have one. Comparable graduation rates have been attained by our bachelors and advanced degree students when compared to the state of Utah and the U.S., despite an uphill battle of active discrimination against our students. While the Order preached strict abstinence to its children, forbidding even incidental contact between the sexes, there seemed to be no rules after marriage especially for the clans leaders. Chuck Lepper, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said that no review is planned at this time. During his tenure, Kingston has followed his father's practice of plural, child, and intra-family marriage. One of the Orders leaders did jail time for severely beating his own daughter after she fled an arranged marriage to his brother. According to people who have left the Order, the cult exploits its 2,000 members as virtual slave labor and hides profits from tax collectors. The lawsuit describes crimes and issues within the Kingston Group that have no direct relationship to the student aid applications. Prior to 2017, Kingston was Professor of Sociology, and by courtesy, Professor in the Curry School of Education. On this much, though, mother and daughter agree: Snows father was the primary driver. Paul Vallas' Net Worth In 2023 Explored. A recent estimate is that he has 34 wives and more than 500 children, as several of his wives have had as many as 16 children each! They believe were Gods chosen people, Snow said of the Kingston Group followers, so you should start having kids as soon as possible.. Jessicas dad told her the wife can get only as high as her husband rises. One of them approached the front door while the other kept a lookout. Her parents placed her in what she called a repentance home, where she wasnt allowed to communicate with anyone without supervision. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jessica Kingston was wed at age 16 in what she says was a marriage she felt pressured into by her parents and others in a polygamous sect. The Knight brothers werent afraid to fight, or to stand up to authority. The groups, whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, are offshoots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hansen said some men try to use their children to improve their status in the sect. Its a quiet, haunting place, with massive hayfields that stretch to the horizon. Mafis mother is Paul Kingstons fifth wife, yet when filling out the aid forms, the woman advising her told Mafi not to submit anything about her father, according to the lawsuit. LDS Church wants to light up a temple in a place that prides itself on dark skies, For husband-and-wife team, this new restaurant is the culmination of a decadeslong dream, offered such statistics to counter the stereotype, Nicole Mafi, one of Paul Kingstons daughters. As he talked to the woman who lived there, Luke Brown came out of the house, and his brother Scott soon joined him. Jessica suspects her dad was pushing her toward another man. He slept with a different one each night, in accordance with their ovulation cycles, and sometimes disappeared during lunch to have sex with a favorite. Birthdate: 1791. On February 26th, 2009, the Salt Lake County Sheriffs Office got a call of suspicious activity in the foothills above the city. She said marrying at 16 mitigated the pressures U.S. society places on her to have statuesque looks and be immodest. 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