Bryant Livingston / AP
In this publicity image released by TLC, the Browns, from left, Janelle, Christine, Kody, Meri, and Robyn from the TLC series, “Sister Wives,” are shown.
Thursday, July 14, 2011 | 2 a.m.
A man moved from Utah to Southern Nevada with what he said were four wives and did so without any valley law enforcement agencies swooping down on him, even though it’s a felony under the state’s bigamy law to be married to at least two spouses at once.
What’s more, the man is Kody Brown, star of the TLC cable TV reality show “Sister Wives,” which traces his escapades with four “wives” and 16 children who practice polygamy.
How does he get away with it?
Well, he might not had he stayed in Utah, which is why he and his family filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday challenging Utah’s bigamy law. The lawsuit, filed on their behalf by prominent legal commentator and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, claims that Brown legally has only one wife.
The lawsuit is challenging a Utah law that makes it illegal when a married person “purports to marry another person or cohabits with another person.”
The operative word here is “cohabits.”
Brown and his family are alleged to have been subject to criminal prosecution “solely because they call themselves a family in the eyes of their church,” the lawsuit states. Because Brown is married to only one woman but also lives with the other three, he is alleged to be in violation of Utah’s bigamy law.
As Turley wrote on his website: “We are not demanding the recognition of polygamous marriage. We are only challenging the right of the state to prosecute people for their private relations and demanding equal treatment with other citizens in living their lives according to their own beliefs.”
Nevada’s bigamy law is different, says Las Vegas family law attorney Marshal Willick, because there is nothing to prevent a married person from also living with someone else as long as they aren’t married to each other.
Outside of another provision that makes incest illegal, “there’s nothing in the Nevada statute that deals with someone’s conduct before, during or after marriage,” Willick said.
TLC’s website link to the Browns indicates that he has been married to Meri since 1990, Janelle since 1993, Christine since 1994 and Robyn since 2010. But the lawsuit says that Kody Brown holds an official marriage license only with Meri.
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