Daphne Bramham: Former Bountiful bishop gets jail time for trafficking teen daughter
Credit to Author: Daphne Bramham| Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 20:37:06 +0000
Former Bountiful bishop and convicted polygamist James Oler will go to jail. Finally.
The 55-year-old was sentenced Thursday to 12 months in jail and 18 months probation for the unlawful removal of a child from Canada. It is half the time that prosecutor Peter Wilson had asked for.
In June 2004, Oler took his 15-year-old daughter to Utah to enter into a coerced marriage with a man she had never met.
Warren Jeffs, the pedophile prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had arranged it all and presided over the ceremony. Ten minutes later, Oler got his fifth wife — another teenager and the second teen that Oler married that year.
The only charge resulting from those under-aged marriages was a single count of polygamy. For that, Oler was sentenced last June to three months under house arrest, 75 hours of community service, and 12 months probation.
Even though the maximum penalty for Oler’s most recent conviction is five years in jail, his sentence mirrors that of Brandon James Blackmore. Blackmore, along with one of his wives, Gail Blackmore, were co-defendants at Oler’s original trial.
Gail Blackmore was sentenced to seven months in jail and 18 months probation.
Oler was acquitted, but that was overturned on appeal a year ago and a new trial ordered.
This sentencing marks an end to a costly, decades-long battle to prosecute the leaders of the fundamentalist Mormon community in southeastern B.C.
Sexual abuse and exploitation has always been the central concern for children’s rights advocates. But polygamy has drawn the most legal attention.
For decades, legal scholars and a succession of attorneys-general got hung up on the question of whether polygamy fell within the limits of religious freedom.
With callous regard for generations of girls, they believed the practice could not be prosecuted. Yet they did nothing to clarify it until 2010 when, after a year, Chief Justice Robert Bauman, then of the Supreme Court of B.C., found that Canada’s criminal prohibition on polygamy was a justifiable infringement of religious freedom.
Along the way, there were plenty of legal messes. Charges were both laid and stayed. Special prosecutors appointed, both rightly and wrongly.
Meanwhile, the community itself was in an uproar — torn between the increasingly erratic and irrational diktats of Jeffs and the more laissez-faire approach of local bishop Winston Blackmore, the husband to 26 wives and father to 150 children. (Blackmore’s 150th child was born earlier this year, after Blackmore had completed six months of house arrest for his 2018 conviction on one count of polygamy.)
Deemed a compliant foil to carry out Jeffs’ demands, Oler replaced Blackmore as Bountiful’s FLDS bishop in 2002. But Blackmore formed his own congregation and later established a second school in the community. Both his school and the FLDS-controlled one were accredited and funded by the B.C. government.
It is important to point out that the only reason that Oler and the Blackmores ended up in court at all — let alone convicted — is because of the U.S. justice system.
In 2008, Texas Rangers raided Jeffs’ Yearning for Zion Ranch after a domestic violence helpline took what turned out to be a hoax call from “Sarah”, who claimed to be a 16-year-old victim of physical and sexual abuse.
Following the raid, 462 children were placed in temporary protective custody, a decision that was later overruled by a judge.
But, importantly, the Rangers found hundreds of boxes of documents, including Jeffs’ diaries and marriage lists. Those were used to convict a dozen men on a variety of sex charges. But the big prize was Jeffs, who was on the FBI’s most wanted list.
Now 64, he was convicted on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl and sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. He is eligible for parole in 2038. Bizarrely, the prison is in Palestine, Texas.
The corollary prizes were Bountiful’s abusers. Their convictions relied on documents seized at the ranch.
All of those convictions have changed Bountiful. On the FLDS side, there are no child brides. There are no brides at all. Until God brings down his wrath on the Earth, freeing the prophet from jail and lifting up his followers, Jeffs has forbidden marriages. But there is also no school.
Winston Blackmore’s followers have a new church and more freedom. Many have discarded their pioneer dresses as well as previous prohibitions on makeup and even dating. Some send their children to public schools and even to college and university.
One of Blackmore’s daughters, Mary Jayne, is now principal of Bountiful’s only school. Last year, she ran unsuccessfully for mayor of nearby Creston.
Blackmore himself remained unrepentant after his polygamy conviction.
As for Oler, family members say he yearns to return to the FLDS. But after three trials, he remains an enigma having provided no defence at any of his trials and spoken only to say that he had nothing to say.
But at the end of what is likely to be the last Bountiful trial of this generation, he finally said something. He thanked the judge, the lawyers and court staff for their “kindness and respect”.
Then, he recited a poem written by his daughter — which one, he didn’t say.
The poem was about the joy of living.
Twitter: @bramham_daphne
There’s a Lot of Joy in Living
There’s a lot of joy in living, if you face life with a smile.
Take time to do some kindness and go the second mile.
For the greatest joy is giving and it all comes back to you.
When you add a little sunshine to all you say and do.
Before this day is ended, try to do some worthwhile thing.
Help to ease another’s burden to make a sad heart sing.
You will find each new tomorrow will be happy from the start,
If you only remember to keep a smile in your heart.