Wed sleep on the chicken coop in the summer and shoot raccoons. The Kingston Group is not affiliated withthe Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) based on the Utah-Arizona line that is run by imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting girls he considered brides. He thinks about his mom, and wonders if she misses him. 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. When he noticed that the boys had stopped working, he became enraged. The Tribune, with assistance from former sect members who reviewed the records, also found 20 cases in which both the bride and groom were at least 18. Jeanne Markey, a partner at the Philadelphia law firm of Cohen Milstein and co-chair of a group there that handles cases of whistleblowers reporting fraud against the government, reviewed the complaint at the request of The Tribune. The relations are distant enough they wouldnt encounter any of Utahs prohibitions on marriage between siblings, first cousins or aunts/nephews and uncles/nieces. They seemed happy, Ron says. All Rights reserved. In the past, we have worked closely with DWS, DOE and financial aid counselors at local colleges and universities to ensure proper training and that all applications adhere to every guideline. A Tale of Two Chads: More Drama From Nineties Band Live. A state court website says the judge must conclude that the marriage is voluntary and in the best interests of the minor.. Boys are taught that the prophet demands absolute loyalty and that they should be prepared to defend the clan. Their divorce was finalized in July 2012 a little more than three years after they married. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Jessica said, strictly speaking, she and the other teen brides she knows chose to get married, but added: Its not much of a choice when theyre groomed to do that.. 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. Father of Avisa Kingston; Susannah Mary Allison; Samuel Kingston and Paul Kingston. 1 choice [of whom to marry] in The Order, Jessica Kingston said. Shortly after that meeting, the complaint continues, Mrs. It felt like it was us against the world. His older brother Richard, a burly diesel mechanic, taught him how to fix cars. Each time turning up no significant violations or nothing at all. 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. The Order was founded by Elden Kingston, Stephens grand-uncle, at the height of the Great Depression. Boys work its coal mine and stack boxes at Standard Restaurant Supply, a massive discount store. If that father says yes, the groom talks to the girl. The other seven are brothers or sons of Paul Kingston. Birthdate: 1791. This is your fault, he thundered, glaring at them. A lawsuit alleges leaders of a Utah polygamous sect bilked federal student aid programs by instructing teenagers to omit their fathers and other sources of income when applying for benefits. During his tenure, Kingston has followed his father's practice of plural, child, and intra-family marriage. 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. At 15, Snow ran away from home, wound up in a foster home and later was returned to her mother. Over 75 years, the Kingstons have amassed a fortune worth an estimated $300 million, but the operation skirts the edges of the law. But the constant fear has subsided. Some former sect members, including two stars of the television show Escaping Polygamy," say girls are pressured to marry at the age most kids are learning to drive and reading Wuthering Heights.. It was Mothers Day in 2000, and Stephen and two of his brothers were speeding up a dirt road for dinner at an aunts house. They had sped off in a Honda sedan. Sometimes he parked his immaculately buffed burgundy Ford Thunderbird on the curb, but it was rare to see the man himself. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Boys are taught they will need to receive revelation from God on whom to marry. (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Salt Lake Community College Redwood Road campus is pictured Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019. Mark Shurtleff, the Utah attorney general, has spent years investigating the clan, gathering birth certificates and genealogical data, and has come to believe that the cult is guilty of a long list of crimes, including child labor, tax evasion, welfare fraud, polygamy and the sanctioning of underage marriages to blood relatives. Were fucked, they told their cousin. Church leader Paul Kingston conducted the service and his brothers John Daniel and David were speakers. Women, meanwhile, allegedly gain status by being pure of blood and obedient, becoming the first wives of higher-ranking numbered men, and bearing many children. Inseparable: Twins Peter (left) and Paul have lived. Do you think if I took $5 million in gold, Id be working out here?. Marriage preparation can accelerate at puberty. View Site A lawyer and an accountant by trade, Stephens father hardly looked like the sort of man who could command the unquestioned loyalty of thousands of followers. Older teenagers were crammed five and six to a room, sleeping on the floors of trailers. [10][11]. When Rachel Young, a stern and humorless woman, got home, she discovered that several crates of silver in her basement had been pried open whoever had robbed the place had clearly been in a hurry and had left with only a small fraction of her silver. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream church, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. 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. The lawsuit describes crimes and issues within the Kingston Group that have no direct relationship to the student aid applications. For Stephen and the other kids on the ranch, the highlight of each week came on Sundays, when they traveled the hour and a half south to Salt Lake for church. 12 Paul J. WILFONG was born on 4-13-1912 in Marlinton. Incest is endemic in the clan, with uncles marrying much younger female relatives; in 2003, police showed up at an Order barbecue and arrested a clan member for marrying his underage cousin. He charged across the field and started brutally beating Stephens cousin. Instead, she volunteered for extra shifts at the Kingston Group-run coal mine near Huntington, where she worked as a dispatcher. If you would like the full family tree and I feel your request is legitimate I will email it to you. Her own father David Kingston has 18 wives and around 200 kids. We figured it was ours anyway, says Stephen, explaining that the clan hadnt paid the boys for bagging coal. When Paul turned 21, he married Richaun Dye. She also felt a religious call to wed and saw herself as mature enough to undertake such a commitment. The jury in Alex Murdaugh's high-profile murder trial will visit the scene where his wife Maggie and son Paul were brutally murdered, before they decide the disgraced legal scion's fate.. Within the clan, the pieces started to add up. Many of these men are also given stewardship of the Orders business holdings sent out to run the clans coal mine or ranches, or to oversee one of its many storefronts. 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. All rights reserved. And it would be several years after that before he stole from his father for the first time. He directed some of his own children the plaintiffs estimate he has 27 wives and more than 300 offspring to seek more financial aid than they would have otherwise been entitled to, the suit cites one of his daughters as saying, and when the assistance exceeded what the student needed to attend college, the sect kept the proceeds. The couples wedding certificate says Stoddard officiated the ceremony April 26, 2008, in West Valley City. Chuck Lepper, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said that no review is planned at this time. Men rise in prominence by being obedient and pure of blood and by having large families that can produce a lot of money and workers for the group, the suit continues. 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. Theyll do what they need to do to defend whats theirs.. Snow said her marriage fell apart over her not liking the Kingston Group and her husband wanting to have another wife. He has held several high-level positions in government and education and worked as a consultant, so he likely has earned a significant income over the years. No recordings or photos were allowed during the ceremony. Her father, John Daniel Kingston, has 14 wives. Paul Vallas and wife Sharon have been together 38 years. Paul Elden Kingston has been the leader of the Mormon fundamentalist Latter Day Church of Christ and the Davis County Cooperative Society in the United States of America since 1987. The suit says sect members might have obtained tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars through false applications. We strongly encourage all members to strictly adhere to every legal guideline when operating their businesses including day cares and when applying for all need-based assistance, including financial aid for students. In his opening statement and in his cross examination of Kingston, the attorney also spent much time dwelling on the practice of polygamy in the Kingston family sect, saying that sect leader Paul . At 17, she agreed to marry a man in his early 20s. To deaden his feelings of isolation, he started smoking a lot of pot and sitting around the house all day listening to country music. When one of his favorite wives died, he missed her so much that he dug her up from her grave. Paul E. Kingston, considered the top man, signed as a witness for four of the marriages that The Tribune found outside Utah. If the father believes his son received true direction from God, the son is sent to Paul Kingston or one of the people he designates to consider marriages. It was all fun, Stephen recalls. The Kingstons operate in a self-contained universe, completely cut off from the outside world. A sheriffs deputy traced the license plate of the Honda to a run-down house in a working-class suburb south of the city. Colorado does not require an officiant or a ceremony to marry. Besides, the mother said, the girl needed her husbands health insurance to treat her condition. He and Carl are members of the Utah State Bar, despite signing state oaths agreeing to uphold the Utah Constitution, which specifically outlaws polygamy. If someone is mature enough, they should be able to do whatever they want.. Stephen moved in with his brother. It was time. They had eight children whose baptisms are recorded in the same church. She, in turn, wrote a letter to the judge on their behalf, and the case was settled without a trial. It was a grimy, derelict-looking place. By the time the teenagers sped away, they had made off with more than $80,000 in silver. Thanks, it read. For parents, there can be other practical considerations in letting a teen marry, Hansen said. A week later, the two were profiled on the CBS program Whistleblower for their work in exposing fraud at Washakie Renewable Energy, the biofuel company operated by two of Mary Nelsons first cousins. A few days later, the groom-to-be picked up Jessica and took her to Murray Park. For, nearly 75 years after they were born, Peter and Paul Kingston are as inseparable now as they were inside their mother's womb. From the outside it seemed like a typical suburban home, offering few clues of the secrets that were contained inside. The family gathered in the living room. The third plaintiff is Michelle Michaels, who the complaint says left the sect in 2017 rather than become a spiritual wife to a cousin who has nine wives. It was also around then that Stephen, at the age of 14, began to see the clan for what it really was. (Courtesy photo) Paul E. Kingston, seen here in this undated photo. Jessicas dad told her the wife can get only as high as her husband rises. ", "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 clan, known privately as the Order, runs what prosecutors believe is one of the largest organized-crime operations in Utah, overseeing its far-flung empire from a string of secret locations and backrooms. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax Such lawsuits typically are sealed to give the government time to investigate the allegations. Paul Kingston is one of eight men named as defendants in the lawsuit. We've received your submission. He had arranged for a banner to be placed over a bridge there. The lawsuit was filed May 24 in Salt Lake Citys federal court by Mary and Bryan Nelson. 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