(In the previous installment we examined how the
Kingston Clan was started by Charles Elden Kingston. Its religious practices
were refined by his successor, John Ortell Kingston. The polygamous group
operated pretty much out of the public eye until 16 year-old Mary Ann
Kingston bolted the clan in 1998 to escape a forced marriage with her
uncle. In the process she spilled the beans on Kingston practices and
the public ate it up.)
All The Kingstons That's Fit to Print
The media pig-piled on the hapless Kingston Clan. Local
newspapers like The Salt Lake Tribune and
The Ogden Standard Examiner ran an endless
stream of exposes. Even out-of-state papers like The
Rocky Mountain News and The
San Jose Mercury News got
in on the act. Salon and Time magazines
ran in depth stories. The Kingstons, after years of obscurity, were
news.
 |
Rowenna Erickson |
Rowenna Erickson was willing to tell tales about her Kingston ordeal
to anyone that would listen. "Ex-members" dished up the dirt to reporters
with wanton abandon. Everything Kingston became fair game for the starved
media.
Countless stories about teenage brides, incest convictions, and business
holdings filled newspapers.
For the most part, the Kingstons
hunkered down in siege mode and kept their mouths shut. Maybe
they hoped the feeding frenzy would play out and they could get on
with the business of acquiring wealth and wedding relatives away
from the steely gaze of the public.
Elden Kingston, owner of
record of several Kingston enterprises like
Rocky Mountain Coin, did give a faxed interview
to The Rocky Mountain News. He claimed the Kingstons were just plain
folks trying to make their way in the world.
 |
Elden Kingston |
"If you ever got to know me,
you would see that I put my pants on one leg at a time, the same as
you," Elden Kingston claimed in the
article. " I follow the Denver Nuggets, Broncos,
Utah Jazz and other sporting events. I pay hundreds of thousands of dollars
in state, local and federal taxes, and I try to comply with all the laws."
Just an ordinary guy!
Usually, the best the media can hope for is a terse response
from Carl E. Kingston, clan leader Paul
Kingston's brother and the lawyer
handling most of the Kingstons' woes.
More Troubles
However, more and more of the clan's practices
came out under media scrutiny. What
really disturbed folk was how often various Kingston businesses intersected
with government affairs.
 |
Paul Kingston |
Under public pressure, Jason Kingston resigned from his job at the Utah
State Auditor's office after his polygamous marriages were uncovered.
Jason worked with a team of accountants reviewing books of public or
quasi-public agencies.
The Kingston-owned garbage company A-1
Disposal often
bid on jobs funded by tax dollars. Standard Restaurant
Supply, another
Kingston venture, was also revealed to have done business with state-funded
agencies.
The biggest blow to the Kingston business empire came in September 2003
when a former worker at the clan-owned Co-op Mines in Huntington publicly
complained of bad conditions in the coal mining operations. Bill
Estrada claimed the company hired
mostly immigrant workers and handed out piss poor wages with no benefits
for dangerous work.
Unions organized and picketed other Kingston businesses
such as the East Side Market in Salt Lake City. The media jumped on
the story and painted the Kingston clan as sweatshop employers. Estrada
claims he was canned for trying to start a union. Co-op mine officials
say he falsified a report about his job performance.
While all this mining hoopla was playing out another
Kingston member was sentenced to a year in jail for marrying a 15-year-old
cousin. Jeremy
Ortell Kingston was convicted less than a year after David
Ortell Kingston was released from prison for the crime that got all the scrutiny
started in the first place.
A Pesky Lawsuit
 |
Jeremy Kingston and family |
His ex-wife, Mary Ann, has
struck hard at the Kingston clan in a move that could prove the biggest
threat to the secretive sect. In August 2003, she
filed a $110 million lawsuit against the Kingstons. The suit names
242 members and 97 businesses operated by the Kingstons.
Mary Ann claims the Kingstons are "secretive
religious society and economic organization" that teaches and promotes sexual abuse
of young girls through illegal and underage marriages, incest and polygamy.
The clan kept silent about her abuse and aided it, she says. And she
wants pay back.
"I am pursuing this lawsuit
with the hope that other young girls and boys in the same position
that I was in will see that the leaders of the Kingston organization
are not above the law, even though they tell us that they are," Mary Ann said in a press conference. "I
also hope that the people that we are bringing this lawsuit against,
will realize the harm they have caused and continue to cause and that
they will change their ways."
A trial of such magnitude threatens to reveal more about
Kingston business holding than has previously come to light. Though the
plaintiff and her lawyers are having a hard time serving papers on those
named in her suit and the case is progressing at a snails pace, this
lawsuit poses the biggest threat to the Kingston clan yet.
The Kingston org is well aware of the danger. Two
Davis County couples, allegedly members of the clan, quickly filed
countersuits against Mary Ann. They claimed she had defamed their character in a press conference
about the lawsuit.
This tactic seemed to have been scotched in August, when a Davis County
judge threw out the countersuit. Judge Michael
Allphin ruled that the
comments at the press conference were too general and did not defame
individual members of the clan.
The Kingstons Strike Back
The Kingstons fired back on September 14. They refilled an amended counterclaim
and third-party complaint against Mary Ann asking for millions in damages
for defamation, invasion of privacy, and other charges.
The countersuit expands its scope in seeking damages. Named along with
Mary Ann are her attorneys, the Salt Lake Tribune, three Trib employees
(reporter Pamela Mason and editors Tim
Fitzpatrick and Tom Baden). The
suit also takes aim at one of the clan's biggest foes, Rowenna Erickson.
The document states Mary Ann Kingston's lawyers misused the court system
in particularly unsavory ways. Mary Ann's law sharks sued innocent parties
to blackmail put upon Kingston relatives into becoming "unwilling
agents" for Mary Ann Kingston and others named in the suit. "Little
fish" forced to become Mary Ann's pawns "as a way of getting to
big fish," according to the countersuit.
The suit also contends this gathering of information through the civil
discovery process is a ruse to provide dirt to government agents on the
Kingstons that could be used against them.
Whether this is a heartfelt move by the clan to combat
what they feel is discrimination or a tactic to force an out-of-court
settlement and keep their dirty laundry from being aired in a public
forum such as a trial remains to be seen.
One thing is sure; Mary Ann's lawsuit
isn't coming to court in the foreseeable future. However, the
Kingston Clan, once an unknown polygamous quantity, is in the public
eye, their practices feeding an insatiable public appetite for all
things Utah and weird. And that ain't ending anytime soon.
A Matter of Custody
In October 2004, a 3rd District court judge in Salt Lake
City ordered Heidi Mattingly Foster to cut all ties with the Kingston
Clan. Following this order was the only way for the Kingston wife to
regain custody of her eight children.
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John Daniel Kingston |
This ruling meant she would have to give up her home and her job, both
owned by the Kingstons. Foster was born into the polygamous family. She
is one of the 14 "spiritual wives" of John Daniel
Kingston.
The much-publicized case, in Utah anyway, was
not a matter of religious persecution, but one of domestic abuse, according to assistant attorney
general, Carolyn Nichols.
"It has to do with
abuse - child
abuse and domestic violence," Nichols
said.
Kingston and Foster's 13-year-old daughter testified
that the father had struck his wife several times and not provided adequate
support for his family.
The Kingstons had a different view, of course. A statement
released by Rachel Young, head of The
Davis County Cooperative Society and daughter
of John Ortell Kingston, called the ruling "an
outrage."
"The state of Utah has
torn this family apart." Young's statement read. "It
is wrong to hold children hostage to further a political agenda. How
can this kind of prejudice and injustice still exist in America? Every
United States citizen should be outraged and ashamed."
At least every citizen that doesn't have a problem with incest, underage
marriage and polygamy, a cynic might add.
Foster has been ordered to attend domestic violence therapy and is allowed
to collect a little over in two grand in support
until she can find a non-Kingston job and home.
John Daniel will be allowed "weekly
supervised" visits with his eight
young ones.
This is not enough according to Young: "We
love Heidi and her children very much. We will not rest until this
family is reunited."
And the Kingston Clan media circus goes on and on. However,
one thing is clear, the Kingstons will no longer
go quietly into that good night. They have joined the fray. Utah weirdness lives on. The Kingston
have stepped forward, out of secrecy, to help bear the banner.
Return To Kingston History Part One
