Nevada legal battle over teen’s wedding made moot by birthday

Tuesday, March 19, 2002 | 11:43 a.m.

The battle over the Las Vegas marriage of a 15-year-old Taos, N.M., girl to her 48-year-old guitar teacher last year has been made moot by a birthday.

The bride, SierraDawn Kirkpatrick, turned 16 in December.

"I'm very disappointed at the snail's pace of the legal system," said the girl's father, Bruce Kirkpatrick of Oakland, Calif., who went to court to try to get the marriage overturned.

SierraDawn Kirkpatrick married Sauren Crow in January 2001 in Las Vegas.

Clark County Family Court Judge Robert Gaston approved the marriage after the girl's mother, Karen Karay of Taos, gave a sworn affidavit of consent that said, "I have seen no other couple so right for each other."

Nevada law allows minors to marry at 15 or younger in "extraordinary circumstances" if one parent persuades a judge that marriage is in the child's best interests.

Kirkpatrick had objected that he had not been aware of the marriage and that Gaston did not make sufficient inquiries before approving it.

Kirkpatrick found records showing Crow pleaded no contest to domestic violence against a former wife in California, but Gaston would not reconsider. Kirkpatrick appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, which heard arguments last June but has not issued a decision.

During the hearing, the Nevada justices repeatedly asked whether the judge in Las Vegas met the requirement to find the marriage was in SierraDawn's best interest.

Both Nevada and New Mexico allow 16-year-olds to marry with the consent of a single parent without a judge's order. That means even if the Nevada Supreme Court ruled against the couple's marriage, they could now remarry with only the mother's consent.

"From our perspective, it's moot," said Bruce Shapiro, Crow's attorney in Las Vegas.

He said he believes the court will let the marriage stand and "whatever decision they make will be giving guidance on future marriage."

Kirkpatrick said Monday there's little he can do. He said that had the court ruled in his favor in time, he would have tried to press statutory rape charges against Sauren Crow.

He said he has not spoken to his daughter in recent months and that she would not accept his birthday card a Taos lawyer tried to deliver.

"I've basically come to the realization that someday SierraDawn is going to have to wake up and come to the realization that this was a big mistake," Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick and Karay divorced when SierraDawn was 4, court records show. The mother had primary custody and SierraDawn occasionally visited her father in California.

The Crows now run a juice bar in Taos. Crow will turn 50 in May.