A juvenile court judge has stepped down from the high-profile Kingston child custody case after a scuffle between his son and Kingston supporters raised concerns over the judge's impartiality.
Third District Juvenile Judge Andrew Valdez formally recused himself Friday, a day after the Utah Attorney General's Office asked him to step aside. Judge Dane Nolan was assigned the case.
"The court categorically denies any actual bias for or against any of the parties involved in this case," Valdez wrote in his order of recusal. However, the attorney general's request and the renewed publicity about the scuffle "makes it impossible for there not to be an appearance of impropriety or appearance of bias."
In another unexpected development, a man appeared in court Friday on charges he sexually abused one of the Kingston daughters placed in foster care by Valdez.
Valdez has presided over the child custody case involving polygamist John Daniel Kingston and one of his wives, Heidi Mattingly, since February 2004. The judge has ruled both Kingston and Mattingly abused and neglected their children, but final placement of the children is yet to be decided.
The Attorney General's Office was concerned about a possible conflict of interest after Valdez's son, Tito, was arrested and cited with disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor. Police said the younger Valdez was offended by protesters calling for the judge's ouster, so he kicked their brochures into the street and knocked down a sign.
"The problem with it was there was going to be hearings in a case involving the judge's son and involving witnesses from the (Kingston's) extended family," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said. "We felt we had a duty at that point to make the motion."
The Salt Lake District Attorney's Office recently dropped the citation against Tito Valdez. However, charges could be filed again soon after further investigation, Salt Lake City prosecutor Sim Gill said.
Heidi Mattingly's attorney, Gary Bell, says the Attorney General's Office is "forum shopping" because they are worried they are going to lose, a claim Shurtleff flatly denies.
"It wasn't for delay tactics or any other of that nonsense," Shurtleff said. "Talk is cheap. They can flap their jaws all they want, but it has nothing to do with that."
Meanwhile, a 20-year-old man has been charged with sexually abusing Kingston's and Mattingly's 14-year-old daughter, who had run away from her polygamist parents and has been in state foster care for more than a year.
Prosecutors charged Jesse Ray Taylor with one count of sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony; one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony; and two counts of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony.
Charging documents state the alleged abused happened on three separate occasions during about a one-week period in May, while the girl was living in foster care. The girl was 13 years old when the abuse occurred. Charging documents don't say how the man met the girl, but they do state they met in March and the abuse took place in a car and in a Salt Lake County home.
"When you are trying to help a child have a normal life in foster care, you don't want to lock them up every minute of the day," said Carol Sisco, spokeswoman for the Division of Child and Family Services. "It's possible that sometimes they could meet an inappropriate person, just as anybody else could. You try not to let those things happen, you supervise them well, but you can't be with someone 24 hours a day."
Mattingly's attorney, Gary Bell, said he is angry DCFS officials and the Attorney General's Office did not contact Mattingly about the abuse until the day before charges were filed.
"My opinion is (the 14-year-old girl) is far worse off now than when she was removed from Heidi's care," Bell said. "I think all of the children have been damaged."
The girl's father, John Daniel Kingston, said, "We are heartbroken that our daughter has been sexually abused while in the state's custody. The state's total disregard for our children's safety must stop."
E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com