By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Tom Green will meet with the Utah Board of Pardons and
Parole Tuesday, Jan. 15, to find out if he will be allowed
out of jail anytime soon.
The board has scheduled the hearing for the convicted
polygamist who is serving concurrent zero- to five-year
prison terms on four counts of bigamy and one count of
criminal nonsupport.
John R. Bucher, Green's attorney, said it is likely Green
will be out of prison in 2002.
"My belief is he should have the earliest possible parole
date for a zero to five sentence," Bucher said. "He is not
violent."
The Hearing will determine, said Jack Ford, Utah
Department of Corrections spokesman, when Green might be
expected to be released from prison and placed on
parole.
However, the hearing is just one of the legal hearings
Green will face this month.
A 4th District Judge, Guy Burningham, will rule this
week, in writing, whether prosecutors will be able to take
Green to trial on the statutory rape of a child charge under
the state's statute of limitations.
Juab County Attorney David Leavitt, who successfully
prosecuted Green on four counts of bigamy and one count of
criminal nonsupport, also accuses Green of fathering a child
with 13-year-old Linda Kunz back in 1986, pointing to Kunz's
age on the birth certificate of her first child.
Kunz remains married to Green and has had several other
children with Green.
Green considers himself "spiritually married" to four
other women. All of these women have been contacted by the
parole board and asked to give comments as victims of
Green's crimes.
Green was convicted last May of marrying four other women
while in a common-law marriage with Linda Kunz Green, and
failing to pay the state $54,000 in child support for 28
children after his wives sought public assistance.
Green is appealing the case.
Green is facing the possibility of being tried on
statutory rape charges for marrying Linda Kunz Green in 1986
when she was 13 and Green was 37.
At issue is whether the statute of limitations has
expired. Utah law allows the state to pursue statutory rape
cases within four years of the crime being reported.
Leavitt said the state first became aware of Green
marrying an underage girl in 1999, during preparations for
the bigamy trial.
Bucher said the state had the information as early as
1986.
Fourth District Court Judge Guy R. Burningham is expected
to render a decision this week.
According to Utah's statute of limitations, a crime must
be prosecuted within four years of filing a report with a
law enforcement agency. At issue is whether anyone ever
reported Green's sexual activity with Kunz to law
enforcement.
The co-prosecutor, Brigham Young University law professor
Monte Stewart, argued in court that Green considers himself
exempt from the law.
"Impregnating a 13-year-old girl is acceptable in
polygamist culture," said Stewart. "This mind set makes a
mockery of the law."
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