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Polygamous Judge to Fight for Job in Court
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By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY - A judge will appear before the state
Supreme Court on Wednesday to fight to stay on the
bench, after being ordered dismissed because he has
three wives.
Those pursuing the case against Judge Walter Steed say
his plural marriage creates a conflict: After taking
an oath to uphold the law, he shouldn't be breaking
it.
"You can't have it both ways," said Colin Winchester,
the executive director of the state's Judicial Conduct
Commission.
The commission issued an order seeking Steed's removal
from the bench in February, after a 14-month
investigation determined Steed was a polygamist and as
such had violated Utah's bigamy law.
Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah punishable by
up to five years in prison, but Steed's attorney, Rod
Parker, said Utah's attorney general and the
Washington County prosecutor have declined to
prosecute his client.
Steed has served for 25 years in the southern border
town of Hildale, handing down rulings in drunken
driving and domestic violence cases. Parker contends
the bigamy statute is only enforced in rare cases,
such as when someone has been duped into marrying
someone who already has a wife.
"There is no allegation that it's affecting his
performance on the bench," Parker said. "It really is
truly only about his private conduct."
The complaint against Steed was filed with the
commission in November 2003 by Tapestry Against
Polygamy, an advocacy group founded by ex-polygamous
women who organized to help others leave the handful
of secretive religious colonies that adhere to the
practice.
Plural marriage was an original tenet of the mainline
Mormon church, but the faith abandoned the practice as
a condition of statehood in 1890. About 30,000
polygamists, who split from the main church into
various fundamentalist sects more than 100 years ago,
are believed to be living in Utah.
Steed legally married his first wife in 1965,
according to court documents. The second and third
wives were married _ or "sealed" as the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refers to
it _ to him in religious ceremonies in 1975 and 1985.
The three women are biological sisters and no one in
the family was expecting that the second and third
marriages would be civilly recognized.
"I think it's an equal protection problem," Parker
said.
The state Supreme Court's chief justice, Christine
Durham, opted not to place Steed on administrative
leave during the investigation.
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