SALT LAKE CITY – Lenore Timpson Holm, a polygamy critic, former plural wife and successful plaintiff in a suit against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has been arrested by Colorado City police on a domestic violence charge.
Holm, 40, was arrested Wednesday night on a class B misdemeanor charge of simple assault and domestic violence at her home in Colorado City, the Deseret Morning News said. She was booked into the Purgatory Correctional Facility across the border in Washington County, Utah.
A Mohave County deputy transported Holm to the county courthouse in Kingman for an appearance before a judge Thursday. Holm was returned to jail and released under a judge’s order at 12:07 p.m. that same day.
Attempts to contact Holm were unsuccessful. A telephone number for Holm has been disconnected.
Earlier this year, Holm, who has 14 children living at home, and her husband, Milton, won a court battle with the FLDS church, which wanted to evict Holm and her family on grounds that she did not own the land the house was built on. Most residents of the Colorado City and its twin city of Hildale, Utah, are followers of the polygamist church.
A Mohave County judge ruled the FLDS church must allow the Holms to remain in their home of 23 years or compensate them for improvements made to the property. An appeal of the judge’s decision is pending.
Holm said she left the FLDS church after leaders wanted her then-16-year-old daughter to marry an already married man more than twice her age. When Holm refused to give her consent, an eviction notice was issued to the couple and they left the church, she said. Church officials denied there was any connection between the property issue and her daughter, who married the man after she turned 18.