By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
In a preliminary trial against Thomas A. Green, Juab
County prosecutor David Leavitt presented clips from daytime
talk shows and local television programs featuring Green and
his five wives admitting to polygamy.
The court proceedings, held last week in Fourth
District Court in Juab County, are the last of those to be
held before the trial which has been moved to Fourth
District Court in Provo after Judge Ray Burningham ruled in
favor of the Provo site.
The clips of programs show self-professed polygamist
Thomas Green, along with his young wives, talking about
polygamy as a life-style they practice.
"It is a part of my religious belief,"Green said, when
he was asked by talk-show host Queen Latifah why he was a
polygamist.
The discussion was intense at Green's second
preliminary hearing which was held to examine expanded
charges of bigamy, nonsupport and cohabitation.
Both defense and prosecution attorneys accused each
other of withholding evidence and leaking witness
testimony.
The felony case of bigamy and criminal non-support,
which will be tried at the same time because prosecutors say
they are connected, was transferred Friday from Nephi to
Provo's courthouse.
The move was made because security would be greater, a
jury pool would be bigger, and because the Juab County
courthouse isn't large enough to handle the crowds expected
for Green's trial, scheduled for May 14.
After court proceedings, Green courted the media in
the hallway outside the courtroom. There Green accused the
state and the LDS Church of collaborating to put him behind
bars.
In the courtroom, Prosecutor Monte Stuart, who is
assisting Leavitt, said the video clips were evidence of a
continuous bigamous family relationship. The Sally Jessy
Raphael Show recently featured the Green family and Green's
comments made on that show indicated that Green had
proceeded to live with his wives since the last preliminary
hearing in June.
John Bucher, Green's attorney, persisted in objecting
to the video clips being shown in the courtroom.
"Only the most damning comments from television
programs were selected. If these television programs are
going to be used against my client, they should be viewed in
their entirety."
"I think you can do harm taking comments out of
context," Bucher added.
As she was questioned by Leavitt, wife Hannah Bjorkman
agreed she had signed divorce papers in November 1995. In
those papers the claim was made that she and Green were "not
compatible" and "no longer could amicably continue with the
relationship."
Leavitt pressed Bjorkman on whether she believed her
marriage was no longer "amicable" if she still resided with
Green at his trailer park, known as Greenhaven.
Leavitt pointed out that divorce papers also stated
that no children came from the marriage. Under further
questioning Bjorkman admitted to being five months pregnant
with her first daughter at the time. However, Bjorkman said
she did not know she was pregnant at the time.
"Do you consider (Green) to be your husband?" Leavitt
asked.
"I consider him to be the father of my child,"
Bjorkman said.
"Do you consider him to be your husband?" Leavitt
repeated.
"In my heart, yes," she said.
Bjorkman broke down in tears just halfway through her
testimony.
Outside court, she said she could not understand why
she and the rest of the family could not be left alone. "Why
can't they just allow us to live in peace?"
In the same setting, Green said he was being singled
out not because he was practicing plural marriage but
because he was outspoken about it. He said he was convinced
that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was
working with the state to prosecute him by offering legal
assistance to the prosecution.
Green is also charged with child rape after it was
discovered that he had married Kunz when she was 13. Utah
law states a person under 14 cannot consent to sex. He is
accused of having sex in 1986 with his present wife Linda
Kunz when she was 13 years old.
After spending the weekend reviewing videos Green
talking about his marriage to five women on television talk
shows, Judge Burningham ruled that Juab County Attorney
David Leavitt had shown there was enough evidence to take
Green to trial on three counts of bigamy and one of criminal
nonsupport, all third-degree felonies.
During a second hearing on the rape case, Green's
brother-in-law Jay Slaugh took the stand to testify he
called police in 1986, concerned that Kunz was too young to
marry Green.
An important issue is the claim made by the
prosecution that local law enforcement was never aware of
Green's marriage to Kunz. If they had been, and did nothing,
then the statute of limitations on the rape charge may have
expired.
Burningham asked Slaugh to review his journal entries
for mention of his concern over Green's relation with
Kunz.
The Judge then cautioned both sides at an earlier
court proceeding not to leak any information about the case,
specifically about taped interviews with witnesses to the
press or others.
Slaugh admitted under oath, however, that he had made
copies of a witness interview. Bucher counseled Slaugh to
return the tape and destroy any copies immediately.
Green said, following his courtroom appearance, that
he does not expect to receive a fair trial in Provo, where
the trial is scheduled to be held, since most prospective
jurors are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
Green said the only place he could get a fair trial in
this state would be Park City, because of the high number of
non-LDS people living there.
Just two weeks before his trial on charges of bigamy,
Green has something else to be concerned about. A defamation
suit he filed against an anti-polygamy group backfired,
leaving him with a $10,831 judgment to pay.
Two years ago Green and his five wives filed a suit in
3rd District Court against the anti-polygamy group Tapestry
of Polygamy, its attorney Douglas White and its former
director, Carmen Thompson.
Green said he was furious over comments White and
Thompson made during a Court TV special and on the local
KUTV Channel 2 show "Take Two" with Rod Decker.
White said most of the statements Green alleged in his
suit were made on television, adding Tapestry has great
concern over the safety of Green's children.
"It's ridiculous," Green said from his home Juab's
West Desert.
Soon after Green's suit was filed, Tapestry of
Polygamy filed a counterclaim to his suit, asking if Green
lost his case that Green pay the group's legal costs.
Last fall, 3rd District Court Judge Stephen Henriod
ruled that because Green never responded to Tapestry's
counterclaim, he lost by default. Henriod slapped Green with
a $10,831 judgment to pay Tapestry's legal costs.
Green said he has been so busy defending himself
against the state on bigamy, rape and non-support charges
that his defamation suit was neglected.
"I didn't even have my day in court, not a chance,"
Green said. Green says he plans to fight the judgment.
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