UPDATED::Court hears Utah child-labor case tied to polygamous group - New Jersey Herald -

UPDATE:: New polygamous-sect-connected company that broke child labor laws is the old polygamous-sect-connected company that broke child labor laws, judge rules

In 2014, as his company Paragon Contractors Corp. was being investigated for breaking child labor laws, Brian Jessop was ramping up a new company.

That company was called Par 2. According to court documents, Par 2 had at least 19 employees who worked for Paragon, still used some forms with Paragon letterhead and began sending construct job bids to general contractors who didn’t even realize Jessop had formed a new company. Par 2 — like Paragon — also employed juveniles in ways that violated federal law.

And so, U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer ruled Monday, Par 2 is a “successor” company to Paragon, and Par 2 and Jessop are in contempt of previous rulings against it forbidding the unlawful employment of children.

UPDATE::  Utah company that used child labor from polygamous sect to pick pecans must still pay $200,000 to compensate kids, federal appeals court rules

A federal appeals court has upheld most of the ruling against a company affiliated with a polygamous church and which was found to have used child labor, though the company did win one point. 

The contempt of court finding against Paragon Contractors Corp. and its owner, Brian Jessop, stands, and they still must pay $200,000 into a fund to compensate the children who harvested pecans on a ranch near Hurricane in 2012.

But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said a federal judge in Salt Lake City was wrong to make Jessop and Paragon report to what is called a special master — someone who would monitor their business practices. That could be an important ruling for Jessop. Last month, he appeared at a new court hearing where he was accused of failing to comply with that special master.

Lawyers for a Utah contractor with ties to a polygamous group appeared in court Monday to challenge a judge's finding that the company put nearly 200 children to work picking pecans for long hours in the cold, without pay.

Rick Sutherland, a lawyer for Paragon Contractors, argued in front of three federal judges at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver that the children, some as young as six, were volunteering with their families to pick up fallen nuts for the needy.

He added that the children looked forward to the break from home-schooling and that this kind of work has been going on for decades in polygamous sects like this one.

"The children were not forced to work by Mr. Barlow. They were asked by the church," Sutherland said of one of the company's owners.

"So if the children were asked to work and were not paid, you get off scot-free?" Judge Carlos Lucero snapped back in the courtroom.

Paragon is challenging a ruling from U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell, who found the company forced kids to work in hazardous conditions during a 2012 pecan harvest in southern Utah. There's no timeframe on when the panel of judges may rule.

Court hears Utah child-labor case tied to polygamous group - New Jersey Herald -