UPDATED
Jonathan Turley will be appearing in federal court in Salt Lake City, Utah to argue for standing in our challenge to the Utah statute criminalizing bigamy and cohabitation. read about it at the Attorney Jonathan Turley's Blog:
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/12/16/federal-court-considers-standing-in-sister-wives-case/
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UPDATED 12/16/ Pm
(Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Assistant Attorney General Jerrold Jensen speaks outside the Frank Moss Federal Courthouse Friday December 16 after a hearing in the "Sister Wives" family challenging Utah's bigamy law.
The "chilling effect" of an open investigation into the polygamous stars of a reality TV show should allow them to challenge Utah’s bigamy law, their attorney argued Friday in Salt Lake City’s federal court.
"Not only has the state defined them as a criminal association, you have prosecutors coming out and saying they are committing a crime every night on television," said Washington, D.C.-based constitutional law attorney Jonathan Turley. "If this doesn’t get them to come to federal court, what does, short of a federal indictment?"
U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups took Friday’s arguments under advisement and is expected to rule in about a month.
Kody Brown and his four wives — Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn — sued to strike down the bigamy law in July, nearly a year after police in their former hometown of Lehi opened an investigation following the debut of their TLC show "Sister Wives."
Though the case remains open, no charges have been filed, and without criminal charges the state says the Browns don’t have legal standing to challenge the law.
Assistant Attorney General Jerrold Jensen countered Turley’s arguments Friday with a new revelation: The investigation wasn’t only about polygamy.
"Officials in the state of Utah do not prosecute for just bigamy. It is brought up in conjunction with another crime. That other crime is being investigated by the Utah County Attorney," Jensen said, though he repeatedly declined to say what it is.
Jensen argued that the injuries claimed by the Browns — including spending their savings moving to Nevada and loss of entertainment-related income — were the result not of the county’s investigation but by their choice to publicize their lifestyle on cable television.
"The Browns have manufactured a case that doesn’t exist," Jensen said.
But Turley countered that the Browns have been careful to keep any mention of the lawsuit off the show.
"This family was singled out. Yeah, they were on TV. They have a right to be on TV. What are these statements [by prosecutors] about if not a chilling effect?" Turley said.
He said the Browns did not attend Friday’s hearing due to a fear of prosecution.
To read the rest of the story, please go to:
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