Parents kidnap bride from her own wedding

A woman whose parents are charged with kidnapping her to stop her wedding testified tearfully that they grabbed her by the hair and told her she was breaking the biblical commandment to honor them.

Photo: Parents kidnap bride from her own wedding

Lemuel Redd, 59, and his wife, Julia, 57, of Monticello, pleaded not guilty Wednesday and were ordered to stand trial after the testimony from their daughter, Julianna Redd Myers, 21.

Defense attorneys Dean and Rhome Zabriskie said they were talking to prosecutors about a plea bargain.

"Naturally, they're under a lot of stress, and they want there to be healing in the family," Rhome Zabriskie said.

Myers said her parents picked her up Aug. 4, the day before she was to be married at the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, for what she thought was to be a quick shopping trip to get special religious clothing.

Instead, they drove south and east toward Colorado, Myers said.

"They told me Perry was evil and wicked and abusive," Myers said, referring to her fiance, now her husband, reports AP.

They stopped at a gas station in Salina, 175 miles (280 kilometers) west of the Colorado line, where Myers used the bathroom.

When she emerged, her parents grabbed her by the wrists and hair, claiming she was not honoring her father and mother, Myers testified.

"I told them, 'I'm not going back in the van,"' Myers said. "They grabbed my wrists and put me back against the wall and were shouting all these doctrines at me. They told me, 'You're not worthy, you're wicked."'

The three spent the night in Grand Junction, Colorado, and returned to Provo the next day.

"'Are you prepared to go to the temple without us?"' Myers, her voice quavering, said her parents asked at one point. "I said, 'I will. I don't want to, but I will."'

Julianna and Perry Myers were married Aug. 8 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple. She is due to deliver their first child in late May.

District Judge James Taylor did not immediately set a trial date on the second-degree kidnapping charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.