The man charged with a rare crime asks the judge to delay his trial while he considers a plea deal by the prosecutor. In July, Steven Kotan was charged with felony bigamy and falsifying a public document. This, after his wife of one year discovered Kotan was already married with a wife and children living in New Mexico.
The
marriage has since been annulled and Janna Ward is closely watching
what happens in court because she wants him to pay for what he did. Sitting
in court for this hearing was the woman who painfully discovered that
her husband of one year actually had another wife and family.
Kotan
and Janna met through Match.com in 2006. It's a popular website for
singles to meet. His profile said he was divorced when he was still
married. After a few months of dating, Steve proposed to Janna.
Janna
Ward: "We went down and got the marriage license; both took our pieces
of paper, filled it out, handed it back in, and there was no hesitation
on his part."
After one year of marriage and a lot of questions during that time, she finally discovered he was married and confronted him.
Janna
Ward: "I said to him, I don't even know who you are. I said, you could
be a murderer, a rapist, you could have 20 wives and 100 kids. I said I
don't know who you were -- who you are and he just cocked his head back
and said 'You know there hasn't been a person in my lifetime I haven't
lied to'" and that just made the hair on the back of my neck stand up."
Janna is not sure what punishment he should get because he does have children to support and he owes her a lot of money.
Janna Ward: "So I know if he goes to prison he's going to get to sit on his butt and everybody else gets to suffer." She says she won't allow this pathological liar to impact her future, although she now has trust issues she hopes to overcome.
Janna Ward: "He said to me, I'm sorry that I've ruined your life and I said you know what, I said, you've taken a year and a half away from me but you're not that important, you're not going to ruin the rest of my life."
Kotan will be back in court next month. He faces up to 8 years in prison if convicted.
Janna
says she'd like to find someone to be a part of her life but she's not
ready right now, and she will never again use an internet website to
help her meet someone.
From KPVI.com by Suzanne Hobbs.
Unreal!! That this keeps happening. Can we post this on EOPC too?
Posted by: Fighter | November 19, 2007 at 05:24 PM