Kingston faces arraignment Monday on abuse
charge
16-year-old testifies she was struck 28 times by her father
By Standard-Examiner staff
May-1998
BRIGHAM CITY -- Supposed polygamist John Daniel Kingston will face a criminal
trial on child abuse charges, 1st District Judge Ben Hadfield has ruled.
After hearing tearful testimony from Kingston's 16-year-old daughter at his
preliminary hearing Wednesday, Hadfield said the prosecution had supported its
argument that Kingston should face a second-degree felony child abuse charge.
"This was continuous pain and suffering. This wasn't a random act,"
Hadfield said in his decision.
As he left the courthouse, defense attor ney Carl Kingston, first cousin to
John Daniel, told reporters his client "said he didn't do it and that's
what we hope to prove."
Kingston, 43, will be arraigned Monday, declining Hadfield's offer to arraign
him immediately after Wednesday's preliminary hearing and leaving the door open
for a plea agreement.
Box Elder County Attorney Jon Bunderson said he hadn't heard from Carl
Kingston about a plea and that he wouldn't accept one without first discussing
it with the girl.
In a voice that was at times barely audible, the girl told a courtroom packed
with her supporters that she was beaten while her father drove her to the
Washakie Salers ranch near Portage May 24, once reaching over, pulling her long
brown hair and punching her in the face.
"I could taste the blood from my nose," she said. "He said,
"You can leave, but you can never come back.' "
The girl said Kingston continued to beat her once they reached the ranch,
hitting her at least 28 times in the face, on the arms, legs, back and buttocks.
An early report that her nose was broken turned out not to be true.
Carl Kingston sought to portray the girl as a wild child who rebelled against
her parents by using drugs on at least one occasion and staying out all night.
"Your parents weren't happy about that were they?" Carl Kingston
asked her.
"No," she replied.
He asked questions that indicated she may have received the bruises
elsewhere.
In a quiet voice, the girl denied anyone other than her father hit her.
A few days before the beating, the girl said she had stayed out all night
with three older men watching movies at one of their homes before falling
asleep.
The girl said she had known two of the men, who were about 19 or 20 years
old, about a week. The other one, who was about 30 years old, she met that night
for the first time. She testified that she didn't know any of their last names.
She denied there was any physical contact between herself and any of the men.
The girl testified that during that same period she went to a motel room with
another boy and used a white, powdery drug with him.
She said she didn't know what the drug was, nor did she know the last name of
the boy who had given it to her, though she'd known him since January.
The girl denied that she could have received bruises at that time.
She's currently in protective custody. For her father's hearing, she was
secretly escorted in and out of the courthouse.
At least 10 members of Tapestry of Polygamy, a support group for women who
want to leave polygamy, attended the hearing to support the girl.
When John Daniel, who wore a charcoal gray suit and red Mickey Mouse tie to
the hearing, saw the women in the front row of the courtroom he stared at them,
finally saying "Hello" to one woman, a former member. She looked down
without responding.
One of the reasons the girl rebelled against her family is that she didn't
want to remain married to her uncle, a relationship encouraged by her father,
she said. She was the 15th wife of David O. Kingston, who is under investigation
by authorities for statutory rape.
The Davis County Co-operative Society was formed in 1935 by family patriarch
Charles Elden Kingston, a Mormon fundamentalist who believed plural marriage
pleased God.
