"A religious sect member who said he had sex with an underage girl at the direction of his prophet has been sentenced to probation, as part of a plea agreement for testifying against the sect’s leader.
Geody M. Harman, 38, was sentenced Friday in 3rd District Court on a third-degree felony count of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Judge Judith Atherton gave Harman credit for 240 days he had already spent in jail.
In March, Harman testified against Terrill Dalton, the president of the Church of the Firstborn of the General Assembly of Heaven, a sect based for a time in Magna.
Harman, who was Dalton’s former first counselor in the church, said he believed he was obeying a commandment — following one of the church’s "higher doctrines" of "giving seed" — when he had sex with the girl, then 15. Harman said he had experienced an "impression" that he should have sex with the teen and conferred with Dalton.
"It’s God," Harman testified that Dalton told him. "You better go fulfill it." Salt Lake Tribune
"The teenager, Dalton’s daughter, testified in court that her father told her he was “the Holy Ghost” and that he promised her “great blessings” if she had sex with him. The Church of the Firstborn and the General Assembly of Heaven is a cult of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).
Dalton and Harman moved their church to Idaho in the summer of 2009, after their home in the Salt Lake City suburb of Magna was raided by federal officials investigating claims of child sexual abuse and assassination threats against President Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.In March, 2010 the group moved again, this time to Montana." ReligionNews
And whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:15
|