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A special prosecutor with the British Columbia Criminal Justice Branch of the Ministry of Justice has approved new polygamy charges against a number of individuals belonging to the Mormon community of Bountiful, near Creston, BC.

According to a BC Criminal Justice Branch media release, Winston Blackmore and James Oler each face new charges of polygamy, while Oler, Brandon Blackmore and Emily Crossfield are charged with unlawful removal of a child from Canada.

Blackmore and Oler, leaders of the Bountiful community which holds polygamy as a tenet of faith in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, were originally charged with polygamy in 2009.

Blackmore was charged with marrying 20 women, though he claimed to have had 26 wives and more than 108 children. Oler was charged with marrying two women.

However, the charges were stayed when the BC Supreme Court was asked to examine the constitutionality of polygamy.

In 2011 the Court ruled that the law against polygamy was constitutional, which allowed newly-appointed BC Special Prosecutor Peter Wilson to continue to investigate potential criminal activity of Bountiful residents.

“Investigations into polygamy and related matters have been the subject of considerable scrutiny over the past two decades in British Columbia,” Wilson explained in the media statement, outlining that evidence previously collected by police, as well as new evidence pointed to the smuggling child brides to Mormon sects in the United States.

The new charges of child removal against Oler, Brandon Blackmore and Emily Crossfield “are based primarily on new information that came to light as a result of investigations that unfolded in the United States. The RCMP obtained a large volume of documentary information seized by investigative authorities in the United States,” Wilson said.

The first hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 9, 2014 in Provincial Court in Creston.