SALT LAKE CITY — After six years in prison, polygamist Tom Green is going home — but which home?
Green has four wives — a fifth left him during his prison stay — in separate households and 32 children, and a parole board wanted to know his domestic plans when he is released Aug. 7.
Green told the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole Tuesday that he would return to his legal wife and “I will never be living” with the other women.
“I will never be guilty of bigamy,” he said.
Green, 58, worked the national talk shows with his wives before being convicted in 2001 for having sex with his first wife, Linda, when she was 13 and he was 37. He also was convicted of bigamy and of criminal nonsupport for the thousands of dollars in state payments made to support his children.
The parole board held Tuesday’s hearing to discuss the conditions of Green’s release but came to no quick decision. Parole board member Keith Hamilton said it wouldn’t be easy.
Hamilton asked Linda Green if she would put up with her husband sleeping with other women.
“If you asked him not to stray … would he abide by that?” he asked.
She offered that her husband would obey if it meant staying out of legal trouble.
“Would you ask him?” Hamilton pressed.
She replied: “If it meant he could be a father to his children, I would, yes.”
Hamilton suggested one condition of Green’s release might be her willingness to demand he remain faithful.
“I would do whatever the state asks for my husband to come home,” she said, sobbing.
Green said he would abide by any conditions.
“I will never put myself at risk to deprive my children of a father again,” he pledged.