Testimony continues

SAME-DAY MARRIAGES CITED IN B.C. POLYGAMY TRIAL

Dozens of marriage certificates, some referencing weddings taking place on the same day involving girls with the same last name, were entered as evidence Wednesday at the trial of two fundamentalist church leaders charged with polygamy in British Columbia.

Winston Blackmore is the head of a religious group in Bountiful, a community in southeastern B.C. where residents are known for practising a faith that condones plural marriage.

Blackmore is accused of marrying 24 women and is standing trial alongside former leader James Oler, who an indictment says has four wives.

Each is charged with one count of polygamy at the trial.

Both men served as bishops for the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints, which is often referred to as the FLDS.

Marriage records presented in court Wednesday were obtained in 2008 when police raided the church’s Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas.

Nick Hanna, a Texas Ranger involved in seizing more than 700 boxes of evidence from the ranch, presented the marriage records in court.

In addition to other documents, police seized marriage records from the fundamentalist ranch in Texas that numbered “in the high hundreds, if not over 1,000,” Hanna said.

The marriage documents include a space where “duration” is noted, and the majority of them read “time and eternity.”

Brian Hales, an expert in the history of the Mormon church, told the court Mormons believe that in some cases marriages can last forever.

The FLDS broke away from mainstream Mormonism over the latter’s move to renounce polygamy around the turn of the 20th century, after endorsing the practice about 50 years earlier, Hales said. Mainstream Mormons dispute the FLDS being an offshoot of the dominant Mormon church, which is based in Salt Lake City.