John Kingston

SALT LAKE CITY (CNN) -- A court case involving a young girl refusing to stay in a polygamous relationship has stirred public debate and controversy in Utah over the issues of sex, polygamy and child abuse.

The public buzz erupted when John Daniel Kingston was accused of beating his daughter, because she refused to stay in a polygamous relationship with his brother.

The 32-year-old brother, David Kingston, has been charged with incest and unlawful sexual conduct with his 16-year-old niece, who refused to stay in the relationship as his 15th wife.

Both Kingston brothers face trial. The girl is in foster care.

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District Attorney Neal Gunnarson said the case was not about polygamy, but the alleged abuse.

"This office and the sheriff's office and the chief of police -- the police chiefs throughout the entire country agree: We have better things to do than to knock on people's doors and say, 'Are you having sex?'" Gunnarson told CNN.

Even though Utah's constitution bans polygamy, the practice has continued among an estimated 30,000 people in the state.

The Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said it would meet Monday to debate whether to back a possible lawsuit challenging the state's ban on polygamy.

A former polygamist wife said she and several families were prepared to file a class-action suit to challenge the ban.

David Kingston

Laura Chapman is a member of a group of women who left polygamous families and are now trying to help others seeking to end their own polygamous situation.

"My father took me by the hand and took me to the prophet and said, 'This is my daughter, Laura. She's 18; she's ready to get married,'" Chapman said, recounting her experience to CNN.

"I sat there with my heart pounding, about to pound out of my chest, wondering who's going to walk through that door. You know, it could be a man in his 70s, like my sister had married," Chapman said.

Chapman refused to enter such a relationship.

"The women don't have any say as to what's happening with their daughters in the first place," explained Carmen Thompson, who was the sixth wife of a polygamist.

"These decisions are made by the men ... and often the men will trade their daughters with each other," Thompson said.

But Roy Potter, a frequent speaker about the religious aspects of polygamy, that this is not usually the case.

"I've heard it called like a fulfilling of a fantasy. But the people who really try to do this thing like it is meant to be done find out that it's not a game, that it's not fun -- that it is serious business because it's part of their religious makeup," said Potter, who at one time had three wives.

Potter also said he deplored the cases of incest and abuse in plural marriages but maintained that the practice of polygamy as such was not to be blamed in such cases.

Correspondent Tony Clark and The Associated Press contributed to this report.