Kingston mom may get kids

After a year of legal strife and at least 24 court hearings, Heidi Mattingly on Wednesday was given a second chance to get her children back.

Third District Judge Anthony Valdez granted a temporary stay to a no-contact order for Mattingly, wife of polygamist John Daniel Kingston, and several of the couple's children.

Outside court, Mattingly was greeted by a crowd of tearful family and friends, many who had picketed outside the court against Valdez the past three days.

Valdez directed the state Division of Child and Family Services to begin a 60-day reunification process, which will start with counseling, extended visits between Mattingly and her children at her home with the ultimate goal to place the 11 children back with their mother.

The past year, nine children have been in foster care, one was placed with relatives and an infant has been with Mattingly.

Inside court earlier, Mattingly broke down in tears on the witness stand while holding a group picture of her children that was circulated among the news media by Kingston supporters.

Mattingly and her attorney, Gary Bell, argued that she has changed as a parent over the past months, having undergone counseling and parental training to deal with her alleged anger problems and poor housecleaning skills. Child welfare officials took custody of the children after allegations that Mattingly and Kingston both emotionally and physically abused the children.

"I have seen Heidi develop empathy," testified her court-ordered therapist, Bonnie Peters, "both for people she may not agree with and also people she may not understand."

Peters said Mattingly "admits that she has made mistakes and she wishes that she had done things differently."

Upon questioning by state attorneys, Peters said she could not say that Mattingly openly admitted to causing child abuse, or that Kingston committed abuse.

Deputy Attorney General Carolyn Nichols said the abuse stems from "the sins of the father" indicating that she doubted that Mattingly would stop Kingston from abusing the children. "The children are no less than if they didn't have a father," she said.

Valdez vented frustration after a year of battling the Kingstons, many of whom were outside calling for his resignation from the bench. Over the past months, Valdez has been subjected to alleged death threats and questionable actions by Kingston supporters. Valdez said if Mattingly had focused on being a better mother rather than supporting conspiracy theories, this case would have ended months ago.