Word: utah
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...that contained the terms "where is." The most popular "where is" query is a search for lyrics to the song "Where Is the Love," presumably the Black Eyed Peas version. (Catchy tune.) Over the last four weeks, that search was followed closely by searches for various small towns in Utah - Sandy, for instance - perhaps due to polygamist Warren Jeffs' recently concluded rape trial. (Guilty.) One of the most popular "where is" queries, which ranks at number six but appears repeatedly, in various forms, throughout the top 20,000 searched terms, is "where is my refund...
...jury in St. George, Utah, agreed with the proscution. Jeffs, who heads the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS), was found guilty of two counts of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl, known throughout the trial as "Jane Doe IV," by forcing her into marriage with her first cousin, Allen Steed. In a town that is a 50-50 split between old Mormon residents and newcomers with more liberal politics and lifestyles - a split echoed in the makeup of the eight-person jury - it was a gamble for both...
Indeed, the legal strategy used so effectively in St. George grew out of a "polygamy summit" held in 2003 by the attorneys general of Utah and Arizona. They had brainstormed and decided to launch an aggressive effort to utilize child abuse, domestic abuse and fraud laws to break the cycle of child marriages. Bigamy, although against the law in Utah, is sometimes difficult to prove and does not carry the heavy penalties found in child abuse laws. Gary Gale, an Ogden, Utah defense attorney who has worked in several high-profile cases involving polygamy, knows this well. In January, Gale...
...historic roots of polygamy in the region too have often made trying polygamy cases difficult and sensitive. Utah, a state founded by the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints - Mormons - rejected polygamy in the 1890s as it bid for statehood and now "wants to live down" the image. Says Gale, "Generally, Mormons believe it is a taboo subject." By making the case focus on child and domestic abuse laws, prosecutors avoided the touchy topic...
...will now face from five years to life in prison on both counts. Ahead of him are additional charges of sex with a minor and acting as an accomplice to incest in Arizona, plus a federal charge of unlawful flight. The "polygamy summit" appears to have paid off for Utah authorities, and other polygamist communities are stepping back from child marriages, according to Paul Murphy, an assistant to Utah's Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. But the FLDS, with communities in Canada and Utah, plus compounds in Texas and South Dakota, has resisted change. What the response will...