Polygamists in fraud case avoid prison

as punishment for the towns being found guilty by a jury of discriminating against people who aren’t members of the religion.

The group believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven — a legacy of the early Mormon church. The mainstream Mormon church abandoned the practice in 1890 and strictly prohibits it today. The group’s leader is Warren Jeffs, who is considered a prophet by his followers. He is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting girls he considered brides.

A turning point in the food stamp case came in November when U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart denied a request by prosecutors and said he would allow defense attorneys at trial to argue that sect members had a religious right to share the products purchased with their food stamps.

That ruling was one of several liabilities prosecutors would have faced in taking the cases to trial, said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Utah. She added that it shouldn’t be surprising the cases were settled because the vast majority of federal cases end with plea deals.

“There are people that hoped this prosecution would vindicate every wrong that had ever been committed at any time by anyone by either members or former members of the FLDS church,” Lund said. “That was never the intention of the case.”