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PRIMETIME
Air Date: Thursday, March 02, 2006
Time Slot: 10:00 PM-11:00 PM EST on ABC
Episode Title: "N/A"
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.]

�PRIMETIME� REVISITS THE WORLD OF POLYGAMY, AS ONE WOMAN�S STORY SHOWS THERE IS NO EASY WAY IN OR OUT

One husband with as many as 15 wives and 75 children might sound extreme to the average American, but in the world of polygamy it is considered normal. And so it is one religious sect, where women must follow men�s rules and men have multiple wives � wives who are sometimes even sisters. This week, �Primetime� goes back inside that secretive, closed world, as one woman�s story shows there�s no easy way in and no easy way out. John Qui�ones� report airs THURSDAY, MARCH 2 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Laurene Jessop, who has fifty-five siblings, moved out of her parents� home in Colorado City, Arizona at age 19 and was placed in an arranged marriage to an older man, Val Jessop. On different occasions when she disobeyed her husband, she says, she was sent away from her children to a mental institution. Laurene was once handcuffed by the town�s police, who are, in effect, controlled by the sect. She finally fled with her three daughters to Phoenix and later gained custody of her two sons.

Qui�ones was with Jessop this past summer when she confronted the father she claims sexually abused her. She goes back to Colorado City to confront her mother and other members of the sect -- all in an effort to prove to herself that she was truly free from the clutches of her past. Now, nearly two years after her escape, �Primetime� is with her again as she embarks on perhaps the strangest chapter yet, which brings her back to the life and husband she fled from.

And: The other side of polygamy� They live in a mansion, have great jobs, and always know where their husbands are because they share them with other wives. These women say their world of polygamy is liberating.

DIANE SAWYER, CHRIS CUOMO, CYNTHIA McFADDEN and JOHN QUI�ONES are the anchors of �PRIMETIME.� DAVID SLOAN is the executive producer.

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