Will the cast of Sister Wives, a TLC show documenting four women married to the same dude, Kody Brown, face criminal charges for their bigamous lifestyle?
That all depends.
A review of Utah bigamy cases indicates that few, if any people have ever been prosecuted for that alone. It is against the law, but the state won't touch it.
If there's a collateral crime like child endangerment involved, however, then action might be taken. So as long as Brown & Co. are clean, they'll likely skate.
The bottom line is that there are so polygamous families in Utah, officials just don't have resources to go after them unless a more serious crime is in play.
Most are law-abiding people otherwise, so it's a real gray area unless there is a child bride, false imprisonment or anything violent behavior coming to light.
In the kase of Kody Brown and his Sister Wives, they are currently the subjects of a state bigamy investigation simply because of their TLC reality show.
They could face up to 5 years in prison if convicted, with their fate now in the hands of the Utah County Attorney's office. But don't bet on it going down.
A D.A. source quoted by TMZ says that "In my experience, there has never been a traditional polygamist family charged with the sole crime of bigamy."
Not that they're completely out of the woods. Brown, his four partners and 13 kids have created a house divided in his fundamentalist Mormon church.
Before Brown decided to do Sister Wives, he went to his Utah church for its blessing, but the lead official there specifically did not give the thumbs up.
The law squarely outlaws bigamy and the church didn't want the heat. The leader told Kody he should the decision himself ... and Kody chose to do it.
His church members are fine with polygamy, but it's Brown's flaunting their lifestyle on TV that's the problem for many of his church's congregation.
What do you think? Should they be charged?