By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Admitted polygamist Tom Green received the minimum five
years to life sentence Tuesday for marrying a 13-year-old
girl in 1986, despite pleas from prosecutors for longer jail
time.
Fourth District Judge Donald Eyre sentenced Green to
serve a mandatory term of five years to life, the shortest
sentence allowed for child rape, which he ordered to run
concurrent with the one- to five-year sentence handed down
to him in 2001 for bigamy and failing to pay child
support.
Eyre had the option of slapping Green with a 15-year
mandatory sentence but said the hardship of Green's absence
on his family was a mitigating circumstance. Green will be
eligible for parole after five years.
Shortly before being sentenced Tuesday on one
first-degree felony count of child rape, Green tearfully
apologized for his actions in fathering a child with head
wife Linda Kunz-Green, his stepdaughter, 16 years ago in
1986 when she was 13 and he was 37.
"Linda said she initiated it, but ultimately it became my
idea," Green said. "I don't blame my victim. I take
responsibility for my actions."
He expressed no regret for his plural marriages but said,
"I've been in prison for a year and I've had a lot of time
to think about my life, my behavior, my beliefs. I couldn't
be any more sorry for the mistake I made in marrying Linda
when I did."
He said he had brought hardship upon his family because
of his actions and he was sorry for that.
"In spite of what Linda said, I realize she was not
capable of choosing to marry," Green said.
Linda Green told the court that her husband should not be
taken away from his family because of a mistake they both
made.
"There is not a day that goes by that I don't have Tom
around and regret that I didn't wait six months so I could
be legally married, and none of us would be going through
this," Linda Green said while crying. "We made an extreme
error in judgment."
Kunz-Green said she is not, in her opinion, a victim of a
rape.
"I do not consider myself a victim," she said. "Our
relationship started because I fell in love with him and I
love him today."
"I'm not standing in front of you today as a 13-year-old
girl, I'm a 30 year-old woman who has seven children."
Juab County Attorney David Leavitt said, before Eyre
handed down the sentence, that Green was a sexual
predator.
"Seven marriages to young girls is enough to demonstrate
pedophilia," he said. "A young girl does not have the
ability to make such decisions in her life."
Leavitt said Green's wives were victims of Stockholm
Syndrome.
"In Stockholm Syndrome, victims of a crime come to
empathize with and take up the cause of their captors," said
Leavitt. "That is clearly the case in this situation."
Prior to the sentence the state Division of Adult Parole
and Probation recommended Green serve at least 10 years for
child rape before being considered for parole.
Eyre said that several factors helped make the decision
to choose the minimum sentence over the recommendation of
Adult Parole and Probation.
He said the crime occurred 16 years ago and that fact had
bearing on the effectiveness of the punishment after so
long.
Another factor was the hardship on Green's wives and
children.
Eyre said Linda Green and her relationship with her
husband were also mitigating factors that outweighed Green's
history.
In addition, Eyre said, Green has agreed to undergo
psychological sex offender therapy in prison.
"Clearly there is a pattern of sexual involvement with
individuals we consider to be children. I personally find
your conduct wholly inappropriate."
Ultimately, Eyre said, the length of the prison stay was
up to Tom Green who must overcome his inclination to marry
young girls between the ages of 13 and 15 or face spending
the rest of his life behind bars.
"How long you stay in prison is in your hands," Eyre told
Green.
Green's attorney, John R. Bucher, said the recommendation
and the law on statutory rape ignore the circumstances in
Green's case: "He married his victim, raised children with
his victim and loved his victim."
Green was found guilty by Eyre last June for having sex
with Kunz-Green in 1986, during a honeymoon in Mexico.
Leavitt said, following the sentencing, that the sentence
was lighter than he liked. Nevertheless, though the minimum
sentence of five years to life was handed down by Eyre, that
did not mean that Green would be released after the minimum
number of years.
"He could die in prison," said Leavitt. "I hope Mr. Green
will reform."
Leavitt said he saw Linda Kunz-Green as a victim who was
incapable of leaving the relationship because her mother was
Green's wife. He said Green was her stepfather and she
didn't have enough education to make it on her own.
"I will not characterize this prosecution as anything
less than successful," Leavitt said. "We had six charges and
we got six convictions."
Bucher said he would appeal the conviction on grounds
that Utah lacked jurisdiction to prosecute the crime and the
statute of limitations expired. Whatever that outcome, he
said, if Green remains a model prisoner, he could be paroled
after five years.
Green is just completing his first year in prison on a
five-year sentence for a bigamy conviction stemming from his
"spiritual" marriage to five women and for failing to pay
the state back for welfare provided for some 30
children.
LeeAnn Beagley-Green, one of the five women Green claims
as a "spiritual wife," splintered from the group about four
months ago and is currently living with her children in
Riverton, where she is trying to start a career as a
beautician.
The remaining four wives have moved into a rental in
Springville which they accomplished with Leavitt's help as
well as state and federal welfare aid.
|
