Even after all the discussion, all the scrutiny, all the promises: The warnings on a soft drink can still offer more caution than Utah's official message against the practice of polygamy in Utah.
Before national news television cameras, two Tapestry of Polygamy members and their attorney slammed Utah Attorney General Jan Graham for failing to enforce polygamy laws and for letting a much touted five-point plan to tackle abuses in polygamous communities fall flat."Attorney General Jan Graham is failing in her leadership to assist and support local prosecution of polygamy," Carmen Thompson, a member of Tapestry of Polygamy told students and members of the local and national press gathered Tuesday at the University of Utah.
After 10 months of work and publicity, the group dedicated to eliminating polygamy in the Beehive State and helping women escape the secret societies said the state of Utah has failed a huge chunk of the population.
"We say we are a 'family values' state," Thompson said. "The state of Utah owes the same protection to all of Utah's children."
Polygamy is the "organized crime" of Utah, said Thompson, a former polygamist wife.
Promises have been made but not fulfilled, she said.
There is no task force to study the problem.
There is no toll-free hotline for victims.
Talk of a shelter for women escaping polygamous families -- many of whom have six, eight, 10 children -- has been disregarded by state officials.
The problems persist, said Tapestry's attorney Doug White.
Men in polygamy are still marrying girls as young as 12 or 13. "Why has the attorney general's office failed to act?"
The Attorney General's office responded Tuesday by saying their initiative against polygamy is a work in progress.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Reed Richards has been over and over the difficulties of prosecuting polygamy since a child abuse case involving a polygamous clan in northern Utah catapulted the issue into a national news story last year.
He has stated the Utah Constitution expressly prohibits the practice of polygamy but there are no criminal penalties attached. Polygamy can be prosecuted under the criminal bigamy statutes, Richards said.
But prosecutors also worry about issues of due process. Richards has asked, "If the state prosecutes polygamy, should it then also prosecute adulterers?"
The attorney general's focus has been on abuse and abuse prevention.
"We've done our best to provide training to help people in polygamy or other relationships where there is child or spousal abuse," Richards said in November.
"We want to make sure people know how to get help and make sure that help is provided. We feel strongly that's what our role is, and we'll continue to waive that banner."
But White said Graham has not followed through on the five-point plan she established in October.
"Claims of religious freedoms are no defense to the crimes of statutory rape, incest, sexual misconduct with a minor and child abuse," Graham wrote in a statement at the time.
The five-point plan included the following efforts:
Graham said she would set up a victim hotline -- "a toll-free line staffed 24-hours-per-day by people with special expertise on victimization within polygamy."
But on Tuesday, no one at the Attorney General's Office seemed to know if the hotline existed or what the number might be.
Victim shelter. Adequate capacity for women and their children to accommodate special needs of victims within polygamy.
Review of child endangerment laws and policy. The State Children's Justice Advisory Board will review laws and policy.
Educational neglect task force. A group to review state and local school procedures on truancy and early withdrawal from school. Some minors may be removed from public school against their will to assume duties within the polygamist communities.
Domestic violence training in polygamist groups.
Mike King, an investigator for the Attorney General's Office who has spent 10 years studying the state's polygamous communities, did open talks with the 5,000-member Apostolic United Brethren group in late July.
In late October, a team of 10 criminal and domestic abuse experts from Graham's office spent a Sunday afternoon in Bluffdale with 900 members of the United Apostolic Brethren.
The followers went to a "special meeting" called by leader Owen Allred.
"That five-point plan she laid out was a road map, a blue print, and the immediate area we targeted was to begin to get into some of these closed societies and build the bridges we could," said Graham's Chief of Staff, Palmer DePaulis on Tuesday. "We are doing that."
The attorney general couldn't set up a hotline or a shelter overnight. "In order to do those things, you have to have those resources.
"We can feel really good about laying out a blue print -- but we can't do all of it by ourselves," DePaulis said. "This has to be a universal response."
Some progress has been made.
"The fact that legislators are willing to step forward and assist us on this effort. . . . We didn't have this kind of response before."
Four pieces of legislation have either passed or are working their way through the Utah State Legislature, which closes up shop March 3:
Lawmakers passed HB48, sponsored by Rep. Carl Saunders, R-South Ogden, raising the minimum age of marriage from 14 to 16, while allowing some exceptions for marriage at 15.
Sen. Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park, is sponsoring SB99, which directs $750,000 to Graham's office to investigate, prosecute and educate about crimes within these isolated Utah communities.
Sen. Beverly Evans, R-Altamont, is sponsoring SB59, which directs $900,000 to expand current shelters, allowing them to expand and accept more than three children.