Friday, February 24, 2006
Annals of the law.
A small-town judge with three wives was ordered removed from the bench by the Utah Supreme Court on Friday. The court unanimously agreed with the findings of the state's Judicial Conduct Commission, which recommended the removal of Judge Walter Steed for violating the state's bigamy law.
Steed has served for 25 years on the Justice Court in the polygamist community of Hildale in southern Utah, where he ruled on misdemeanor crimes such as drunken driving and domestic violence cases.
The commission last year sought his removal from the bench after a 14-month investigation determined Steed was a polygamist and had violated Utah's bigamy law. Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.
AP, via SFGate.
A fourteen-month investigation? That's almost five months per wife.
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Cut them some slack. Imagine the difficulty in conducting an investigation in which all persons with relevant knowledge can claim both spousal privileges. They probably had to round up all the flower girls and ring-bearers to establish corpus delicti.
(Unlike California, neither Utah's spousal testimonial privilege nor its spousal communications privilege contains a statutory exception for actions for bigamy. Caveat sponsor.)
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(Unlike California, neither Utah's spousal testimonial privilege nor its spousal communications privilege contains a statutory exception for actions for bigamy. Caveat sponsor.)
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