FARMINGTON -- Judge Michael Allphin dismissed two defamation lawsuits last week against a former Kingston wife.
Allphin dismissed two lawsuits in 2nd District Court filed last spring by two Davis County couples, claiming "slander, libel, invasion of property and conspiracy" against MaryAnn Kingston, 22, who filed a personal-injury lawsuit against the Kingston Family in 3rd District Court a year ago.
That suit is for $110 million and names 242 members and 97 family businesses as defendants. The suit claims that the Kingston Family, also known as "The Order" encourages sexual abuse of young girls through illegal marriages, incest and polygamy.
After the suit was filed, two DavisCounty couples, Nevin and Denise Pratt and F. Mark and Suzanne Hansen, filed suit in 2nd District Court, alleging defamation through the young woman's lawsuit and accompanying public statements and named MaryAnnKingston and her attorneys as defendants.
However, Allphin dismissed their lawsuit, ruling that MaryAnn Kingston and her lawyers didn't defame the two couples, because statements made at a news conference held at the time Kingston filed the suit, were so general and were regarding a group so large, that no member of the group of defendants could claim harm.
The judge explained that statements made in connection with a pending court proceeding, even a news conference, were protected by the judicial-privilege doctrine, which gives those involved in litigation the right to speak freely about the case without fear of recourse.
The ruling stated that the Hansen defamation suit was flawed on procedural grounds, leading to its dismissal.
MaryAnn made headlines in 1998, when she left the family at age 16 to get out of an arranged marriage with her uncle.
She walked approximately seven miles from the family's ranch in the Box Elder County outback to call police, after her father beat her unconscious with a belt for her resistance to the marriage. Her father/uncle went to jail and her uncle/husband went to prison.
After the ruling, MaryAnn Kingston's attorneys released a statement, "the lawsuits filed by the Pratts and theHansens were nothing more than a desperate attempt by theKingston organization itself to lash out and harass MaryAnn for having sued its members."