"I respect your rights as a victim of that alleged crime and ask for your input regarding your desires of how you would like the case to proceed, or even if you would like the case to proceed," Leavitt wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune. "If you wish to visit with me about this, I will make every effort to respect your wishes and to handle the case in a way that treats you and your children with fairness, respect and dignity." 

Green is charged with four counts of bigamy, rape of a child and criminal nonsupport in Nephi's 4th District Court. A preliminary hearing, scheduled for Thursday, was continued during a phone conference Monday until June 29. 

During the hearing, Leavitt will argue his motion to compel Judge Donald J. Eyre Jr. to rule Green and Kunz have been legally married since 1986, despite obtaining a Nevada divorce in 1989. If Eyre does not rule the marriage is legal, Leavitt says he may have to drop the bigamy charges. 

Because Eyre's ruling is crucial to the prosecution's case, his relationship with Leavitt has been called into question by Green's supporters. Eyre was appointed to the bench by Gov. Mike Leavitt, David Leavitt's brother, and was the Juab County Attorney prior to David Leavitt, who took over when Eyre joined the bench. 

"Isn't there a conflict of interest here?" Green friend Randall Larsen wrote Monday in a letter to Gov. Leavitt. 

While Leavitt has cast Green's five current "wives" and many of his 29 children as victims, all resisted Leavitt's investigation. 

"I am not a victim -- I am here willingly," Kunz told The Tribune. "No one has ever shown us where getting married that young has hurt us." 

On Monday, Leavitt told The Tribune he did not officially notify Kunz she was a victim "because she has been so adamant about the fact she was not a victim." 

Even so, he said, "It is not too late to protect her daughters." He added: "I do find great irony in the fact that she wishes to enforce the victims' right statue but is apparently unwilling to abide by the other side of the deal in victims' rights." 

According to Utah's statute, victims have a right to receive timely notice of court proceedings, but they also have a duty "to fully and voluntarily cooperate with law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies." 

And although lawmakers asked prosecutors to be "sensitive" to victims' wishes, University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell says the law does not compel Leavitt to acquiesce to Kunz's desire to drop the sex charge. 

"He should factor that into his decision; that is relevant. But that is not to say it is determinative or that he made a wrong decision to go forward," Cassell said. "I'm of the mind victims should have a voice in the proceedings, but not a veto." 

Kunz' attorney Bill Morrison, however, says Leavitt is recklessly trying to protect a woman who never believed she needed protection. 

"It victimizes the poor victim," Morrison said. "This supposed crime was 14 years ago and she's had a bunch of other children with Tom Green. Now she stands to have her entire family destroyed on the actions of the state."