PROVO — It took a jury just under three hours Friday night to decide Tom Green is not a religious martyr but is instead a man who took advantage of the state's welfare system and twisted Utah's marriage laws to marry five women.
Green was convicted on four counts of bigamy and one count of criminal nonsupport by the jury of five women and three men, many of whom are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have polygamy in their family history.
Fourth District Judge Guy Burningham set sentencing for June 27 at 9 a.m.
Green, 52, faces up to five years in prison on each of four counts of bigamy and one count of criminal nonsupport, or a total of 25 years, when he is sentenced. He could also be fined up to $25,000.
As he left court, Green, trying to hold back his emotions, said not only has the state turned its back on its heritage, but so has its leaders. Surrounded by three of his five wives, he said he definitely plans to appeal the verdict. He said the verdict was disappointing.
Wife Linda Kunz appeared very stoic. "I'm in shock. I'm still in shock."
Kunz said if Green serves jail time, she is confident the wives will get by somehow. "We're going to stick together."
She saw irony in the charges and the verdict: "They're prosecuting him for not taking care of his family and then taking him away from his family so he can't support them."
Hannah Bjorkman, also a wife, said through tears, "All he is guilty of is raising a family and loving his wives."
Defense attorney John Bucher said he plans an appeal and will continue to represent Green pro bono, or without fee. He said he believes that sensationalized information offered during the trial unfairly swayed the jury's decision.
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The verdict came after closing arguments by the prosecution and the defense in the most publicized polygamy trial in more than 50 years.
In testimony, Green claimed that a series of hardships devastated his family starting in 1993. Over those years, the family was evicted from a mobile home park in Sandy and lost a 3-year-old in a trailer fire that destroyed their home in Utah's west desert. The blaze sent two wives and a dozen other children to the hospital.
A second trailer was struck by a drunken driver and torn open. A couple weeks later a wind storm demolished the trailer. The events, Green said, forced him and his five wives to seek some $54,420 in state dental, medical, food, heating and living assistance. Prosecutors estimated Green owes the state some $64,000 in back child support, which he has yet to pay.
Through all that time, Green testified, he toiled to support his family the best way he could, selling magazine subscriptions throughout the West and Midwest.
But Friday evening, Juab County Attorney David Leavitt dropped a bombshell as he called Green's boss to the stand. Larry Beckwith, president of Allied Publishing in Fresno, Calif., told the jury Green had worked almost 12 years as a contract salesman. According to Green's 1999 tax statement, he earned $31,983. But Beckwith said Green did not earn that money.
Out of some 258 contracts sold, Green was only responsible for 19. His wives sold many of the rest. Of those contracts, Leavitt pointed out, about 72 percent of them canceled within five months, meaning Green actually owes Allied Publishing some $27,556.
"It means Allied Publishing really took a bath on that one," Beckwith said.
Green admitted on the stand that roughly 53 percent of his other contracts were earned by members of the Order of St. Michael, the religious order to which Green belongs. Green also admitted that he did not often pay those members for their work. In that financial light, Leavitt painted Green as a man who was delinquent as a supporting parent to his 25 children.
Green has described his family as a "beehive" working together in his business to support the family.
"I'm sure his family is like a beehive and that his wives are busy queen bees," Leavitt said. "The something he had to do is that he made them go out and get those contracts."
Bucher argued that Green is a man who created a "sore thumb" for the state by appearing on national and international television, proclaiming his plural marriage.
"Mr. Green is an outrageous character," Bucher said in closing arguments. "His beliefs are unlike most people in this courtroom."
But, Bucher warned, convicting Green would open the door for others who are different to be prosecuted. "It's the power of the state to bend people's behavior to what the norm is," Bucher said.
Leavitt argued that bigamy hurts people. "If you don't think that bigamy hurts people take a look at the marriage license of Linda Kunz," Leavitt said, showing the jury that Kunz was married to Green when she was 13, after a "courtship at a dinner table" while her mother Beth Cook, who also married Green, looked on and consented. Utah law requires parental consent for such young marriages.
LeeAnn Beagley's marriage license was then held up by Leavitt, showing that her mother, Shirley Beagley, who is also "spiritually married" to Green, witnessed and approved that marriage at the "dinner table." At 14, Hannah Bjorkman also married Green. "Mom said 'yes' and Tom took her away and the rest is history," Leavitt said.
Leavitt also pointed out that all of Green's wives were raised in polygamous families with the exception of Allison Ryan, who was "spiritually" married to Green for three weeks before leaving the family.
Green is also facing a felony charge of rape of a child. That charge stems from his marriage to Linda Kunz, which produced a child when she was 14 years old. A trial date has not been set in that case.
E-MAIL: gfattah@desnews.com