It looks like the felony bigamy investigation against the “Sister Wives” reality show family is moving forward. Kody Brown, the family patriarch, has four wives, 13 biological children and 3 step-children. Three of the wives, Kody, and their biological children live in one home in separate connected apartments. The fourth wife has a separate home with her kids at this point but an addition is being built to accommodate them. Bigamy is technically a felony under Utah law, where the Browns live, although Kody is only legally married to one of his four wives. After announcing an investigation last week, the local police department has turned over the case to the county. The Browns, who say they hope to increase acceptance of polygamy through their show, plan to fight the charges and have hired a top lawyer.

Kody Brown and wives have a powerful new legal force behind them — TMZ has learned … constitutional law guru Jonathan Turley is now representing the “Sister Wives” family in the polygamy investigation, and he’s willing to fight it all the way.

Turley — a professor at The George Washington University Law School — tells TMZ he is ready, willing and able to sit down with the Utah County Attorney and make a case why his clients should not be prosecuted.

Turley says absent some proof that the family is engaged in child abuse or other crimes, Utah prosecutors almost never prosecute for polygamy. Turley is quick to note there is absolutely no evidence of child abuse or other crimes in the Brown family.

Turley points out … although Utah prosecutors have a lot of discretion in deciding when to prosecute someone, people can’t be hauled into the criminal justice system simply because they’ve gone on TV and become high profile. In legalese, it’s called “selective prosecution” … and it’s illegal.

Turley says his goal is to convince prosecutors to leave the Brown family alone. But he says if his clients are prosecuted, he’ll fight it hard. Turley would not say outright that he’ll make this a test case and push it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but he made it clear … he will do everything it takes to clear his clients if they’re prosecuted.

[From TMZ]

Many of you have pointed out that the Browns are in no way representative of the very oppressive, harsh reality of polygamy under Fundamentalist Mormonism and that they’re doing a grave disservice to its victims (women, children and adolescent boys) by putting such a rosy face on the practice. Let me play devil’s advocate for a moment, though. (And again I’m playing devil’s advocate and definitely see the other side to this.) If that’s the case, and they don’t have much in common with the compounds where girls are married off to relatives at young ages (and they don’t, they’ve said they want their daughters to go to college and marry for love) why prosecute them? Yes they’ve chosen to put themselves out there, but there’s a big difference between not agreeing with what they’re doing and prosecuting them for a law that is almost never enforced in cases like this.

The wives seem to have entered into this agreement under their own free will, and to be willingly staying in it. They tout the benefits of having “Sister Wives” and they all sound happy with the arrangement. We may think they’re fools and that it’s wrong for them to try and make polygamy seem so palatable, but maybe that’s how it is for them. If they’re the very extreme exception in polygamy there is the danger that by going public they’re making an antiquated, illegal practice seem legitimate. Don’t prosecute these people for that, just go after the homes where women and children are genuinely at risk. That won’t get much publicity, though, just as documentaries on the oppression of polygamy don’t get as much press coverage as a cute reality show family.