The Brown family of the wives’ sisters are afraid to return home to Utah because of state laws banning polygamy

They lead an unconventional life like a massive family of polygamists.

And Kody Brown recently returned to his home state of Utah with his four wives years after the group fled the state because of strict laws that made the practice of polygamy a crime.

In a recent episode of Sister Wives, Kody, Christine, Janelle, Meri and Robyn returned to the city for the first time and reflected on the frightening situation in which they had to flee the night after police began investigating the family.

Janelle, his second wife, remembered how the family had to raise and leave their lives in Lehi, Utah, after they began making public their unique family life.

“Just days after the announcement was made, the Utah police began investigating us because plural marriage is a crime in Utah,” Janelle said. “He was punished with up to five years in number.”

Kody first married Meri almost 30 years ago, and shortly after their union, he added a spiritual union with Janelle, followed by Christine. Robyn was the fourth wife added to the family in 2010 and the first wife in almost 16 years.

She admitted that everyone was “very afraid that they would come and arrest us”, so they left the state in the dark of night. I felt we were exiled.

After moving their family to Las Vegas, they sued the state of Utah, saying, “Look, this law is unfair,” Janelle recalled. “We won, so for a year … we were decriminalized. We are no longer criminals.

Over the years (and the show’s 14 seasons), the family has grown to 18 children and two grandchildren with another on the way.

“The state of Utah appealed to the lawsuit we won. They overturned it and then doubled down on a new law, HB 99, “which” made it a more serious crime for polygamists in Utah, “Kody said.

“A bill was introduced in the Utah Senate, SB 102. What it would do was review the law passed a few years ago,” Janelle said in a confessional. “Basically, so that people like our family, who lead a law-abiding life but choose only to cohabit for religious purposes, are no longer criminals.”

Kody added: “What I do in my bedroom with another adult who agrees is nobody’s business. So why do I think I can legislate? He’s naive.

Robyn remarked: “I think MPs believe that by decriminalizing this law, it will make it free for all and there will be more abuses that will take place. And what they don’t realize is that the current law is so strict that it makes them so afraid to go out – and, as if, a mother, she has a daughter who is abused and she is so afraid to go to the police for that he is afraid he will tear his family apart and take his child. So her daughter continues to be abused all her life, which is crazy and horrible.

Before heading back to Utah, the group discussed whether they should all drive together because they are rarely in the same place, but eventually decided to use a single vehicle.

“I think for me, the biggest fear of returning to Utah, if we’re attracted to a traffic violation, will they use it as an opportunity to address the accusation of polygamy for murder?” Janelle said. “Because that’s how it usually works – they get you for something else and then they add it. I always say, “Don’t talk, Kody, don’t talk.” It’s stupid, but it’s a real fear.

“If you can imagine, it’s like going to a place where your family is illegal. It just feels overwhelming. It always makes me worry, “Robyn said.

“Polygamy right now in Utah is a crime,” Christine said after arriving in Utah and catching up with the Dargers. – We’re with other criminals. We are criminals just like them. He could come and arrest us all.

“Kody, because he has a legal wife and three pluralistic wives, could go to jail for 9 to 15 years,” Janelle said. “Then your probation means not seeing your children, not committing the crime, so basically, if you saw the children again, then you violated the probation. That took you to the federal system. It’s just a big mess.