NEPHI -- Polygamist Thomas A. Green can continue peddling magazine subscriptions in Utah and Las Vegas while awaiting trial on felony charges of rape and bigamy -- but he can't travel this weekend to New York.
Green's attorney John Bucher faxed a letter this week to 4th District Judge Donald Eyre requesting that Green be allowed to travel to New York from Friday until early next week. Bucher said Green had made a commitment months ago to be in New York during those days.However, Eyre denied the request Thursday and ruled that Green can only leave Utah to travel to Las Vegas to conduct his family business of selling magazine subscriptions. Green must also continue calling the Juab County Jail each afternoon to notify sheriff's officials of his whereabouts. Green must give a phone number where sheriff's officials can call him back and which they can verify is within Utah or the Las Vegas area.
Green, who turns 52 next week, was charged in April with rape of a child, a first-degree felony, and four counts of bigamy and one count of criminal nonsupport, third-degree felonies.
Juab County Attorney David Leavitt accuses Green of having sex in 1986 with one of his five wives when she was only 13.
He is also alleging that the marriage to the woman is valid under Utah law and that Green is committing bigamy by cohabitating with four other women. The prosecutor also alleges that Green owes more than $54,000 in child support.
Originally Leavitt agreed to allow Green to remain free pending his preliminary hearing. However, Eyre placed the restrictions on Green after Leavitt later sought to have him jailed. Leavitt claimed Green was quoted in a Scottish magazine article as saying he would flee to Canada if the state's prosecution of him got "too hot."
Green, who lives with his wives and more than 20 children in a trailer compound about 100 miles west of Delta, would face a mandatory prison sentence if convicted of the rape charge. Leavitt says he will present as evidence the birth certificates of Green's son and the mother, which allegedly shows the woman was only 13 when the child was conceived. Under Utah law a 13-year-old cannot consent to sex.
A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for June 29.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com