Polygamist Judge Ordered Removed From Bench
By Debbie Hummel
The Associated Press
02-27-2006

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 K. Steed for violating the state's bigamy law.

Steed said he accepted the decision.

"I had hoped that the court would see my case as an opportunity to correct the injustices that are caused by the criminalization of my religious beliefs and lifestyle, and I am disappointed the court did not reach those issues in my case," Steed said in a statement.

Steed has served for 25 years on the Justice Court in the polygamist community of Hildale in southern Utah, where he ruled on such matters as drunken driving and domestic violence cases.

A year ago, the commission issued an order seeking Steed's removal from the bench, after a 14-month investigation determined Steed was a polygamist. Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah, punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.

"Judge Steed's relationship with his three plural wives for more than 20 years clearly runs afoul of the prohibition," the ruling said. "When the law is violated or ignored by those charged by society with the fair and impartial enforcement of the law, the stability of our society is placed at undue risk."

The initial complaint against Steed was filed with the commission in November 2003 by Tapestry Against Polygamy, a group founded by former polygamous women who help others leave the secretive religious colonies.

Steed legally married his first wife in 1965, according to court documents. The second and third wives were married -- or "sealed" as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refers to it -- to him in religious ceremonies in 1975 and 1985. The three women are sisters.

Steed has 32 children by the three women, according to court documents.

"The case provided an opportunity to address the issue of polygamy head-on. But they left that opportunity for another day," Steed's lawyer, Rodney R. Parker, said at a news conference.

Parker said it's unlikely Steed will appeal the ruling, because the court did not address arguments that even though polygamy is illegal, the case involved consenting adults and Utah's bigamy law is rarely, if ever, enforced. The last bigamy case prosecuted in Utah was in the 1950s.

Parker said it was unclear when the removal order takes effect, but he has advised his client not to hear any more cases.

In the court's November hearing, justices focused their questions on two issues: whether Steed's conduct impugns the judicial office and whether he should be removed from the bench if he has not been tried and convicted of bigamy.

Friday's decision did not address the trial-and-conviction issue. It only said that the illegal behavior is something Steed acknowledged and that he "has given every indication that he intends to continue his 'plural marriage' arrangement."

Plural marriage was an original tenet of the mainline Mormon church, but the faith abandoned the practice in 1890. About 30,000 polygamists, who split from the main church into various fundamentalist sects, are believed to be living in Utah, the Southwest, Mexico and Canada.

Hildale and nearby Colorado City, Ariz., are largely populated by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Members of the FLDS sect adhere to the tenet of plural marriage.

Justice Court judges are appointed to four-year terms by city councils or county commissions to handle class B and C misdemeanor infractions, charges with penalties that don't exceed up to six months in jail or $1,000 in fines.

Judges are not required to have any legal education or training prior to appointment. A truck driver by trade, Steed was paid a few hundred dollars monthly for serving in the part-time position.

three wives, thirty two kids. Yikes! How is he going to pay for college now for all those younguns? Wonder what the kid ratio is per wife?

He's not going to pay for them. YOU are. It's what they call "bleeding the beast" (aka the federal gov't), which they take for all the welfare and social services they can get their hands on. To the feds, wives #2 & 3 are "single mothers," so the qualify for all kinds of gov't assistance.

Only in America, eh?

I'm of three minds on this issue.


Do wop.

If he just would have thought enough to be randy, and have a wife and 2 girlfriends (instead of 'honorably' trying to marry the other two), he might have been a little better off.