Court hears Utah child-labor case tied to polygamous group

A Utah contractor with ties to a polygamous group is set to appear in court to challenge a judge’s finding that it put nearly 200 children to work picking pecans for long hours in the cold without pay. The case, heard by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, involves Paragon Contractors, which argues the children were volunteering with their families to collect fallen nuts for the needy. The company claims the children looked forward to the break from home schooling.

Lawyers for Paragon Contractors are contesting a ruling from U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell, who found the company forced children as young as 6 to work in the cold during a 2012 pecan harvest in southern Utah. The judge ordered Paragon to pay $200,000 in back wages and submit to independent oversight. The company called the sanctions overreaching and unfair.

U.S. Department of Labor attorneys also allege the company changed its name and put children to work again on construction jobs in 2015 and 2016. Prosecutors contend the company has deep ties to the polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs and was under pressure to make money for its leaders when it used 1,400 unpaid workers, including 175 children. Paragon worked closely with leaders of the secretive Fundamentalist LDS Church along the Utah-Arizona border to funnel children to the harvest.

Jeffs is serving a life sentence in Texas after being convicted of sexually assaulting girls he considered brides. Group leaders do not have a spokesman or contact where they can be reached. The case is part of a broader effort to address abuses within the group, which includes underage marriage and discrimination against non-members of the FLDS Church. Labor lawyers have also settled an underage labor case against another company linked to the group.

An Arizona jury found that the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, violated the constitutional rights of nonbelievers by denying them basic services such as police protection. Federal prosecutors in Utah also reached plea deals with several members accused in a multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud scheme.

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