Yes, the Salt Lake Tribune reported (before the delay) that she's supposed to return after the trial.
Now I'm sort of curious what her missionary companion thinks about having her for a companion. Of course if she's not from the states she may never have heard of her before.
Has that rule about coming home for funerals changed over the years? My dad was in a bad accident as a child (fell off a house while retrieving a ball) and very nearly died. His older brother was allowed to come home from his mission to see him.
Well, neither Elizabeth nor the the church gets to decide whether she returns to testify. The courts decide and they have subpoena power and can throw you in jail if you don't comply. I don't think she is getting any special favors from the church on this because it isn't their call. If you are called to testify, you show up.
It's true that if you get subpoenaed, you have to show up. But there's no subpoena power when she's out of the country if she wasn't served the subpoena here before she left, which is unlikely since the trial date was not scheduled before she left. So this has to have been an agreement. My guess is that the church agreed ahead of time that she could go on a mission and come back whenever the trial should be scheduled.
This is a public relations issue for the church. They couldn't appear to be preventing her from testifying on a case everyone has heard about. And I do believe she's getting special treatment because in any other circumstance the church would not have accepted her as a missionary knowing she needs to go to trial to testify about being raped while in the middle of her mission. I think all missionaries should get this special treatment, so I don't oppose her being allowed to come home for this. It just goes to show the church can treat missionaries a little more humanly when it wants to.
Of course she is getting special consideration. Probably was sent to France or wherever so she would be out of the country for this. There is a lot more to this story than they want out IMO....I never bought it all.
I may be wrong, but I would guess that she was sent to France because we have VERY strong privacy laws here which prevent a lot of gutter journalism, thus protecting her from media overkill/stalking...
the power to effect the service of a subpoena outside the U.S. They do have the power to effect service of a U.S. national or resident living outside of the U.S. Moreover, they probably have the power to make a U.S. resident return to their state of residence to be a witness at a federal trial pending in a federal district court pending in a federal district court located within the borders of that state, notwithstanding the 100 mile rule.
J. Chan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > the power to effect the service of a subpoena > outside the U.S. They do have the power to effect > service of a U.S. national or resident living > outside of the U.S. Moreover, they probably have > the power to make a U.S. resident return to their > state of residence to be a witness at a federal > trial pending in a federal district court pending > in a federal district court located within the > borders of that state, notwithstanding the 100 > mile rule. \
I am not lawyer, but that is my understanding. At any rate, the church would look bad refusing to allow a victim to return to testify.I doubt they would want the bad publicity or would want to go up against the courts. She may have gotten special treatment by being allowed to go in these circumstances and there is no doubt that she got a plumb calling.