For apparently the first time in more than 100 years, Utah prosecutors are going after a woman on polygamy-related charges.

The woman, Suzie Stubbs Holm, 36, is part of a polygamous household in rural Utah. But she is not directly charged with polygamy. Instead, she is accused of getting her 16-year-old sister to marry into the household.

Holm was charged by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff last week with abetting bigamy and illegal sex and could get up to 10 years in prison. Holm's husband, Hildale police officer Rodney H. Holm, 36, was charged with illegally marrying the little sister.

Utah men are rarely prosecuted for polygamy; there is only one other known case over the past 50 years or so.

And there is no known case over the past century in which a woman was charged with entering into a polygamous marriage or inducing someone else to do so, according to Martha Bradley, an author and researcher on polygamy in Utah.

Anti-polygamists said the case was long overdue.

"It is not only holding the man responsible but holding the other adults in the home responsible for not reporting child abuse," said Flora Jessop, a Phoenix anti-polygamy activist and former plural wife.
[more: salon.com]