16 year old Polygamy victim waiting.....

Other girls in same situation looking for way out of polygamy

Polygamy victim bides time

Associated Press

June 28, 1999
OGDEN -- A girl who catapulted polygamy in Utah into national headlines at age 16 has been reclusive since a pair of trials involving her father and uncle, members of the Kingston polygamous clan. She has repeatedly refused movie offers and requests for interviews. "Those options are out there, but she doesn't want to come forward yet," said Bill Burnard, director of the Children's Justice Center in Logan.

"She knows she'll be giving up her confidentiality. It has to be the right time for her." One counselor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said her counselors and social workers are trying to protect the girl's privacy and safety. "There's an element of possible physical danger," said the counselor. "We know that (the Kingstons) don't take kindly to having their secrets revealed."

In May 1998 the girl told police that her father, John Daniel Kingston, beat her with a belt until she was unconscious. She said he was punishing her for rebelling against an arranged marriage to her uncle, David Ortell Kingston. John Daniel Kingston pleaded no contest to a child abuse charge and is to be sentenced Tuesday in Brigham City. David Ortell Kingston is due to be sentenced July 9, after being convicted on one count of incest and one count of unlawful sexual contact with the girl.

According to her counselors, the girl is considering attending an out-of-state college to escape the 1,000-member polygamous clan and studying law. "There's probably not a whole lot of places in the state where she can go where she wouldn't run into someone from the Kingston group," said Burnard. One counselor said the girl is struggling to square her personal beliefs with what she was taught in the clan, but she also talks about boys, like a normal 17-year-old.

She has returned to high school after a year of intensive private study to get her back up to speed. Like many of the Kingston girls, she was pulled out of the public school system after the ninth grade. "She's very headstrong," said Karl Perry, a deputy attorney general who prosecuted her father in juvenile court in Brigham City. "Once you understand that system she got out of, no way she's average. A lot of the girls in the Kingston clan are watching her, thinking about trying to get out."

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Page Modified March 17, 2000