Utah polygamist sect accused of indoctrination, rape and child marriage

Ten former members of a Utah-based polygamist sect known as the Kingston Group are pursuing punitive damages against the organization after they say it subjected them to years of unpaid labor, sexual violence and human trafficking.

The suit alleges episodes of rape aimed at forcing pregnancy, group members covering up years of sexual abuse and indoctrinating children in elementary school about plural marriage.

Nine of the plaintiffs claim the Kingston Group made them begin working during their elementary or preschool days through their late teenage years. None of them received a paycheck, they allege.

By the time he was 12, Roberts said, he was working 12-hour shifts at a mine the Order ran.

The Kingston Group denied allegations that children worked for their businesses. The group also said that its business owners are strongly encouraged to follow all applicable laws when hiring, employing and compensating their employees.

The allegations facing the Kingston Group come after the state of Utah effectively decriminalized polygamy between consenting adults in 2020, making plural marriage an infraction similar in gravity to a speeding ticket. However, if a spouse is coerced or underage in a plural marriage in Utah, it becomes a felony.

However, more than 130 years later, polygamist sects exist in close-knit settlements throughout the state, including the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), run by its imprisoned leader and convicted rapist Warren Jeffs.

Pro-polygamy groups estimate there are about 30,000 to 40,000 people in Utah who live in polygamist communities. The Kingston Group declined to confirm its membership numbers.

The lawsuit against the group is not the first time it has faced media scrutiny or legal peril. In August, the Utah state charter school board mandated that the Kingston Group-run charter school, Vanguard Academy, replace all nine members of its governing board after various and repeated violations.

Officials alleged that school leaders hired Kingston-connected businesses and paid them with taxpayer money, the Salt Lake City television news station KUTV reported.

The group argued that its values exact self-sufficiency and that per capita its members save or contribute more to their community than the average citizen does.

However, the fraud accusations confronting the Kingston Group extend well beyond Washakie and other Order-run businesses.

The Guardian typically does not identify people who allege to be a victim of sexual violence, but the publicly available lawsuit identifies Michaels, Lancaster and other plaintiffs by name.

Amanda Rae Grant alleges her father is Verl Johnson, accusing him of marrying 17-year-old Lori Peterson and two others to produce 33 children.

Instead of being listed on her birth certificate, Grant says the document listed a fictitious father called Kyle Grant.

She accuses Kingston Jr of physically overpowering and raping her to try to get her pregnant. Group members knew of the abuse, her complaint alleges, but did not report or stop it. Instead, she claims they used group money to get her in vitro fertilization treatment.

She later fled the group with her twin children.