A 16-year-old girl may have been planning to wed the man she loved when she was forced to marry her polygamous paternal uncle last year.
The girl testified Thursday during a preliminary hearing in 3rd District court that she had a boyfriend about four years older than she, before her father, John Daniel Kingston, married her to his 32-year-old brother, David Ortell Kingston, on Oct. 15, 1997. But she apparently continued to see the boyfriend after allegedly becoming Kingston's 15th wife, said Salt Lake Deputy District Attorney Dane Nolan."Obviously, she had some feelings for (the boyfriend,)" Nolan said, pointing to the girl's emotional response when defense attorneys questioned her about any former boyfriends.
There is also evidence the girl had purchased a wedding dress a couple of months before the alleged marriage to David Kingston, said defense attorney Steve McCaughey.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge L.A. Dever ordered David Kingston to stand trial on three counts of incest and one count of unlawful sexual conduct, all third-degree felonies punishable by up to five years in prison each.
Kingston is scheduled to appear Dec. 21 before Judge David Young for arraignment.
Prosecutors added the third count of incest Thursday after the girl told them during recent interviews that she and David Kingston had sex four times after the marriage, Nolan said. The fourth incident, which occurred between May 7 and May 15, is being prosecuted under a new, more specific law that went into effect on May 4.
David Kingston, who was accompanied to the hearing by his first wife, Sharli Rae Jenkins Kingston, maintains he did not marry or have sex with the girl, said defense attorney Steve McCaughey after the hearing, noting there have been some discrepancies in her story. She wants to get away from the family and "that's why she's saying this."
"It's her testimony vs. whatever credibility issues develop," McCaughey said. "We have to wait until the trial to hear Mr. Kingston's side of the story."
The girl, who is now 17, testified the first sexual encounter occurred in the middle of January 1998 while she was still living in her mother's Sandy home. "I guess it was my night, so he came over," she said.
She and David Kingston also had sex once in March and once in April after he moved her to a South Salt Lake apartment she shared with her father's half-sister, she said. She did not want to have sex with David Kingston, but she did not refuse him because she was afraid and felt trapped, she testified.
"That is a great description," said Carmen Thompson, spokeswoman for Tapestry of Polygamy, an organization that offers help to women and children leaving polygamy. Thompson said she escaped a polygamous marriage after many years of abuse.
"All of us women who have exited polygamy, we feel her pain," said Laura Chapman, who said she also escaped a polygamous marriage. She was among a half-dozen Tapestry of Polygamy members who attended the hearing.
"You do feel trapped. You have no options . . . You have your sister wives, but you don't talk about the painful stuff," Chapman said.
The girl testified one of David Kingston's other wives, a woman about 19 years old, who is also her cousin, spent some time living with her in the apartment. However, the girl was not allowed to go anywhere, not even to the store, Nolan said.
David Kingston was charged after the girl told prosecutors that her father, John Daniel Kingston, belt-whipped her in May after she ran away from David Kingston. John Daniel Kingston has been charged with child abuse in that incident and is scheduled for a March trial.
The girl is in state custody and attending school. However, since her parents pulled her out of junior high school, she is behind several years, Thompson said. The Division of Child and Family Services has set up a trust fund in her name to help her fulfill her goals of attending college and law school.