As I mentioned in a
previous post, it was perfectly legal before September of 2005 for a 14-year-old girl in Texas to marry whomever she wished, as long as her parents consented.
The law was changed at the urging of Rep. Harvey Hildebrand to make it a crime for a 14 or 15 year old to get married without a court order. (At least 2 FLDS-related search warrants include affidavits wherein LE representatives have stated: "Affiant knows of
no provision under Texas law for legal marriage to a child under the age of sixteen,"; knowledge of Texas law by Texas Law Enforcement appears to be sadly lacking, in this area.)
Rep. Harvey Hilberbrand wanted the law changed because at least one of his constitutents wanted it changed. And that constituent, or group of constituents, wanted the law changed because the FLDS moved to Schleicher Co, Texas.
After introducing a bill into the Texas House, there was a hearing held by the House Committee on Juvenile Justice & Family Issues, on April 13, 2005. The minutes of that public hearing are available
here, which says only that testimony was heard, and the bill was left pending. (As a side note, this specific bill, HB 3006 never passed, but the language of it was incorporated into Senate Bill 6. There was specific discussion of this strategy during the hearing, -
HB3006 starts at 2:36. And here is Mr. Hilderbran's
press release regarding SB 6 )
This post is not about how the subject laws might have been unconstitutionally changed, since they targeted a specific religious group. Nope, it's about money.
The official
witness list for the hearing states the following:
April 13, 2005 - 10:30A or upon final adjourn./recess
For:
Brower, Sam (Self and Private Investigator)
Krakauer, Jon (Self)
Mankin, Randy (Self)
Shurtleff, The Honorable Mark L. (Utah Attorney General, State of Utah)
The witnesses were not sworn in, that I could see, and upon granting of the floor, were required to state their names and whom they represented. Upon reviewing the
archived video of the hearing, I note that all of them stated their names, but none claimed to be representing themselves, or another group.
The
Tax Reports of the Diversity Foundation declare that for the year 2005, no money was paid for any kind of lobbying effort. Had there been funds spent for such an endeavor, and not truthfully reported, it would have jeopardized the 501(3)(C) status of the Foundation. Such non-profit entities are prohibited from spending any tax-exempt money whatsoever for any legislative or political activity.
The Diversity Foundation reported some $22,679 in "Travel, conference and meetings" expenses for the year 2005, although these are not itemized. Diversity is based in South Jordan, Utah, and I suppose if they had to travel to Salt Lake City several times during the year to take care of business with the Secretary of State, or perhaps the Attorney General's Office, they could have spent $22,679. South Jordan is 18 miles from Salt Lake City, according to Rand-McNally. Well, maybe they had to pay expenses for something like a Safety Net meeting during that year too.
But really, how much money are we talking about? It's probably not important. And nobody seems to care much who paid for what.
Randy Mankin of Eldorado, Texas, only had to drive to Austin, or perhaps fly from San Angelo. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff would have flown in from Salt Lake City, and author Jon Krakauer hails from Boulder, Colorado. Private investigator Sam Brower may have flown from St. George, or may have been a traveling companion of Mr. Shurtleff out of Salt Lake City. Then, there's ground transportation from the airport to the hearing location, and back to the airport.
Undoubtedly, they wouldn't have been expected to travel and testify on the same day, because the hearing started at 10:30 a.m. so there's probably at least one night's lodging to be considered, at a nice hotel, maybe something like the Marriott.
And meals, how can we forget about food? There's dinner the night before, after their flights got in, then a good breakfast to start the day of the hearing, and then a nice self-congratulatory lunch together afterwards.
I'm not even going to venture a guess on the total spent.
Randy Mankin, being a Texas citizen himself, I'm not so concerned about his expenses. After all, the YFZ ranch was only four miles from his house, and with his being the local newspaper publisher and all, and as long as he paid his own way, he probably had a legitimate business expense if he wrote it off, and a personal interest in the hearing, if he didn't.
As noted in a
previous post, Sam Brower was paid $121,556 by the Diversity Foundation for "Investigative and Security Services" in 2005, but that wouldn't include any legislative activities.
And perhaps the taxpayers of the State of Utah bore the cost for Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to travel to Austin, Texas, if he was acting in his official capacity.
Admittedly, Jon Krakauer did state while giving his testimony that he has spent "tens of thousands" of his "own money" to investigate the fundamentalists. (But then, hypothetically speaking of course, if person A should happen to give person B money, it then becomes person B's "own money", doesn't it? )
We can only assume that these gentlemen felt so strongly about their mutual endeavor to rid the world, or at least Texas, of the FLDS church that they paid their own expenses for travel, lodging and food to appear before this committee in Austin, Texas. Why on earth would we think anything different?
And, as always, I invite anyone with factual information concerning this subject to share.
