B.C. Supreme Court tosses polygamy case

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- British Columbia's Supreme Court Wednesday tossed the polygamy case against two Kootenay community leaders.

British Columbia Attorney General Mike de Jong said the province will consider appealing the decision, BCLocalNews.com reported.

Supreme Court Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein ruled former Attorney General Wally Oppal did not have authority to appoint a second special prosecutor to the long-running case after the first one declined to proceed with charges against Winston Blackmore and James Oler, both of Bountiful. Attorneys for the two men asked the high court to throw out the single polygamy counts brought against them this year.

"The attorney of the day, Mr. Oppal, was confronted by an important and difficult decision, and that was to try and get a matter that has lingered for some time before the courts," de Jong said. "The Supreme Court of British Columbia has issued a ruling that impedes, or obviously constrains the ability to do that on the basis of the reasons that the justice has said. We're going to study those reasons and then make a decision."

Blackmore and Oler are rival leaders of a community of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints, a breakaway sect of the Mormon church. Blackmore allegedly has 19 wives and Oler three.