May 18, 2001--
PROVO, Utah (AP) _ Polygamist Tom Green never imagined he was legally married to any of his five wives and thus couldn't have been a bigamist, he testified Friday as Utah's first polygamy trial in decades entered the final stages.
"In the eyes of the government, I consider myself single," Green said on the stand. "In the eyes of God, I consider myself married."
Green, 52, is charged with four counts of bigamy and one count of criminal failure to pay child support. If convicted, he faces 25 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
Green is charged with bigamy because Utah, which banned plural marriage in its Constitution in order to become a state in 1896, has no specific anti-polygamy law on the books.
In this precedent-setting trial, prosecutor David Leavitt is blending the state's bigamy law _ which bans a man who is married to one woman from living with another _ with Utah's definition of common-law marriage. Last year, a judge declared Green was legally married to his first wife, Linda, even though they didn't have a license.
Green argues he never knew he might become legally married the women he considers his "spiritual" wives.
Throughout the four-day trial, jurors were led through Green's complex family tree, which includes marriages to three sets of sisters, and shown videotapes of television shows depicting the family's life in Utah's West Desert.
Prosecutors say that, by appearing in the media, Green held himself out as man and wife, as required in the marriage law, to hundreds of millions of people.
But Green, carefully choosing his words, testified that he never meant married in the defense's definition.
"I was always careful and cautious to make sure they understood that it was a spiritual union that I had with each of them," he said.
He also said on the stand Friday that he was "blind-sided" by the state's decision to declare him legally married last year.
But prosecutors played up Green's own experience working part-time as a paralegal, insisting he must have understood the marriage law.
"It seems that in all areas of the law, you would have the keenest area of interest in family law matters," Monte Stewart told Green in cross-examination. "Despite that heightened interest in that area, you weren't aware (of this law)?"
Stewart also showed Green the common-law marriage statute and quoted from a letter Green wrote two years ago citing the law and a test case for it.
"If you have two couples and one has a tag from the government hanging on it that says 'married' and the other doesn't, I'm convinced that both couples are still married whether the government's married tag hangs on it or not," Stewart read.
His cross examination was part of a tense exchange in which the normally mild-mannered attorney mocked Green, even asking if he spoke English.
"Isn't it true, Mr. Green, that Linda Kunz Green is your wife when it suits your purposes to be her wife?" Stewart asked. "And she is not your wife when it does not suit your purposes?"
"Linda Green is my wife by my definition all the time, as are all the other mothers of my children," Green responded, equally upset. "And according to the government's decision, she is never my wife."
Green's testimony continued after a lunch break. Attorneys on both sides were expected to give closing arguments and send the case to the jury Friday evening.
Get a live update tonight on Eyewitness News.
(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV 05-18-01 1248MDT
