SALT LAKE CITY — A woman has filed a lawsuit against a polygamous sect and her former husband — who is also her uncle — claiming she was trafficked and pressured to marry.
Kathrine Nichols’ lawsuit names as defendants the Davis County Cooperative Society and Paul E. Kingston. He is Nichols’ grandfather and leader of what’s often referred to as the Kingston Group or the Order.
Nichols is also suing Daniel C. Kingston, who is described in the lawsuit as her cousin, uncle and the man she married as his third wife when she was 16 and he was 19. Her complaint includes photos from what she says were three wedding ceremonies she had in three states. There’s also a copy of her and Daniel C. Kingston’s Rhode Island marriage certificate.
“By coercing girls like Kathrine into underage marriages and pregnancies under these circumstances,” the lawsuit says, “the Order makes girls dependent on the Order which contributes to the extreme difficulty of leaving.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Salt Lake City, asks for damages to be proven at trial.
Neither Nichols nor her attorney returned messages seeking comment. Neither did the defendants nor their attorneys.
Nichols says Daniel C. Kingston already had two wives when she married him. Her first wedding ceremony was “on or about February 11, 2021,” the suit says, in New Mexico “where an illegal ceremony was performed in the middle of a cold night on the side of a road.”
A photo in the complaint shows what the plaintiffs say is Nichols’ father reading wedding vows on the roadside. Her father is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
The next month, Nichols and Daniel C. Kingston flew to Rhode Island for a second ceremony. Another photo shows the pair on a pier in wedding attire as an officiant in black reads. The attached marriage certificate shows it was issued in Providence and filed March 18, 2021.
“Kathrine had been induced to believe that she had to travel to Rhode Island for this second marriage ceremony so that her Order Marriage in New Mexico could be considered lawful,” the lawsuit says.
Elsewhere in the lawsuit, the plaintiffs say that Daniel C. Kingston’s lawyers would later argue the Rhode Island marriage was legal based on a law there that “allows marriages of kindred members of certain ancient Jewish sects.”
The third ceremony happened soon after returning from Rhode Island, at a building on the campus of Ensign Learning Center, a school operated by the Kingston Group in West Valley City, Utah. Those photos include what the lawsuit says was Daniel C. Kingston’s other two wives.
Nichols is suing the defendants under federal trafficking statutes.
She became pregnant at age 16 and gave birth at 17, the lawsuit says. Another pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage. A third pregnancy was aborted over concerns about health of the fetus.
That’s another topic in the lawsuit. Nichols describes that at or about age 10, her blood was tested and stored in a database meant to determine who within the sect can marry and produce healthy children. Incestuous marriages have resulted in birth defects, the plaintiffs explain.
Nichols’ suit says she opted to leave the sect at age 19. Records from Utah state court show Nichols and Daniel C. Kingston received an annulment in late 2023. The judge ordered joint custody of their son.
The documentation of the marriage is “baffling,” said Shanell DeRieux, who grew up in the Kingston Group and at age 18 was driven to Grand Junction, Colo., to marry her cousin in a ceremony that was legal there. While men may wed their first wives legally, DeRieux explained, they typically seek to avoid scrutiny of plural marriages by not pursuing legal recognition.
“I’m not sure which part is more surprising,” DeRieux said, referring to the documentation, “the fact that she’s not the first wife or the fact that she’s literally his niece and cousin.”
DeRieux, who is not a party in the lawsuit and reviewed the complaint at FOX 13’s request, said parents and leaders in the sect tell girls even before puberty their roles are to get married and have children to support the kingdom of God.
“They make it look amazing,” she said. “They intentionally do a big (wedding) ceremony with flowers and dresses and they have a big line.”
“One of my biggest hopes,” DeRieux added, “is that the younger girls who have not gotten married yet or maybe just recently did or maybe just recently had a baby, that they see the strength and possibility of living a different life and knowing that they don’t actually have to stay with someone that they’re related to.”