Fight Bigamy

Accused Florida Bigamist's Wives Keep Showing Up

As it turns out, Leonard "L.J." Hare might be a polygamist instead of a bigamist.

A prosecutor spoke Monday with Hare's wife No. 1 in New York, who says they never divorced, and wife No. 2 in Colorado, as a Kissmee woman surfaced to say she was nearly wife No. 4.

"I can't help but wonder how many other women like me are going to come crawling out of the woodwork," said Janet Quertermous, 39, one of three women to contact the Orlando Sentinel about Hare after reading a story Saturday that detailed his arrest on a bigamy charge.

Quertermous said she met Hare through an online-dating site in October 2006, the same month he married wife No. 3, Penny Marie Milman of Orlando, and might have accepted his marriage proposal five months later if he hadn't suddenly stopped calling.

Two other women refused to provide their names to the newspaper or verify their claims that Hare had wooed them, saying they were embarrassed and afraid of publicity.

Hare, 41, of Winter Garden declined an interview request through officials at the Orange County Jail, where he was being held without bond.

Assistant State Attorney Stephanie Mahaney, assigned to prosecute the case, said Hare could face additional charges, including falsifying an official document -- his marriage application. The document, submitted to the Orange County Clerk of Courts in October 2006, lists a fictitious Social Security number and birthplace and claims he was never previously married.

Mahaney said she spoke on the phone Monday with Hare's wife No. 1, Candy Winks, 43, who described Hare not only as "a liar, cheat and scoundrel" but as the father of her three children.

According to Mahaney, Winks, who resides in New York, said they never got a divorce, though she sought one, and that Hare refused to sign divorce papers as recently as March.

Winks could not be reached by phone Monday by the Sentinel but posted a message on the paper's Web site.

"I raised our children by myself," she wrote. "He was not there physically, emotionally or financially. I am sorry for the other woman that fell into his trap."

The bigamy investigation was triggered by wife No. 2, Tammy Hare of Colorado, who discovered wedding photos of her missing husband on the Web site for the Chapel of Love in Eustis, where he married wife No. 3. He had told her he was in prison.

Eustis police Detective Erik Luce said Leonard Hare, who used the aliases "L.J." and "Lyn Jon," was not a former U.S. marshal or undercover drug detective, a ruse he sometimes used to explain his sudden and lengthy disappearances. Police said he worked in construction.

By Steven Hudak of the Orlando Sentinel

For more information see Local6.com.

Louisville, KY Man Accused of Bigamy Admits Fraud

A former Louisville businessman and educator who's charged with bigamy in Florida has pleaded guilty in federal court in Louisville to bank fraud for providing phony certificates of deposit as collateral for nearly $850,000 in loans.

George W. Dumstorf Jr., of Spring Hill, Fla., admitted yesterday that he defrauded Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. between 2001 and 2006.

He could receive up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine when he's sentenced Nov. 10.

The Courier-Journal reported in January about how Dumstorf had juggled three wives and a girlfriend over 20 years in what prosecutors called "a scheme to court single ladies ... and make money off of them."

He is scheduled to be tried in Bay County, Fla., on Sept. 23 on a charge of bigamy for being married to two women at once.

He has pleaded not guilty.

To explain his frequent absences, he told the women -- who did not know each other -- that he had a secret job with NASA, that he was an Air Force general and that he worked for the CIA.

None of it was true, the newspaper reported.

Dumstorf worked at what was then Bellarmine College from 1965 to 1973 in a variety of posts, including assistant night school dean.

The indictment in U.S. District Court in Louisville alleged that Dumstorf got an $850,000 loan in 2005 by presenting two counterfeit certificates purportedly issued by the Defense Department.

That loan consolidated a number of previous loans that also were secured by fake CDs supposedly issued by the Kennedy Space Center Federal Credit Union.

By Andrew Wolfson of the Courier Journal

Woman Claims Keith Murray is a Bigamist

Cynthia Stokes Murray thought she had the perfect husband, then she found out she might be sharing him with another woman.

Cynthia married Keith Murray in 2002. The two never lived together. According to Cynthia, Keith claimed he was called up to active duty in the military. He was living in St. Louis while she continued her life in Milwaukee.

Still, he visited several times a month. Cynthia says she never suspected he may have another life, until this year.

She says Keith was supposed to be having surgery in Milwaukee. He canceled at the last minute. Cynthia was angry and confronted him. She claims he changed his story several times and that's when she became suspicious.

On a hunch, she checked out the Missouri Court System Web site. She thought her husband may be hiding a financial problem. What Cindy found rocked her world.

She found a divorce record. Keith had divorced another woman just a year earlier, while he was married to Cindy.

"Now I feel like I've lived a lie for the 10 years since I met him," she told Lauren Leamanczyk.

When she dug further, she found a marriage license that showed he'd married the other woman after marrying Cindy.

"I cried all the way home," she remembers.

Now she wonders who her husband really is. She thought he was a military man with a romantic side. Now, nothing is certain.

She wants to know what happened, but Cindy accepts that she may never learn the truth.

"I have this big hole inside myself. How could you hurt another person like that? How could you do that?"

Keith Murray's attorney refused to comment on the case except to say they believe they have a "strong defense." Bigamy is only a misdemeanor in Missouri.

By Lauren Leamanczyk from TMJ-4

First Bigamy Trial in Riverside, CA Involves Carolyn Ko

 A woman accused of marrying a man in Palm Springs while allegedly still married to another man was ordered today to stand trial on one count of bigamy -- perhaps the first case of its kind in Riverside County, authorities said. Carolyn Yvonne Ko, 45, was charged with bigamy Dec. 6 after her husband, Brian Davies, provided the Indio Police Department with a marriage certificate indicating that Ko had married Steven Hardy Satterstrom two years earlier in Phoenix.

Ko, who police said lived in La Quinta, is believed to be the first person prosecuted for bigamy in the county, said district attorney's office spokeswoman Ingrid Wyatt. If convicted, Ko faces up to three years in state prison and a $10,000 fine, Wyatt said.

Ko and Davies were married in 2004 in Palm Springs and were going through a separation last year when Davies presented the document to investigators, according to an Indio police report. Ko's marriage certificate with Satterstrom states that the two were married in 2002 in Phoenix.

Satterstrom told Indio police that he and Ko were still legally married and had not filed for divorce. He said he was unaware that Ko had remarried in California, according to the statement. Ko, who is free on $5,000 bail, is scheduled for pretrial arraignment Sept. 16.

By Joanna Lin of the LA Times

Loved and Left: On the Trail of a Convicted Bigamist

Wayne Yee Chinn is a convicted arsonist. Now 50 years old, he has also been convicted of theft, forgery, bail jumping and bigamy for being married to more than one woman at the same time.

He has been married at least seven times over the last three decades. According to some of those wives, a former fiancée and girlfriends, Chinn has left a trail of heartache across five states. Women, like Chinn’s fifth wife, Cynthia Castile of Eagle Creek, Ore., say he has left them in financial ruin.

"It makes me sick to my stomach," she said.

Chinn’s former fiancée, "Michelle" of Boise, Idaho, said she fell victim when Chinn pretended to be a naval reserve officer and was deployed to Iraq. He was actually on the Oregon Coast, married to another woman.

"When they call them con artists, that is what they are, they are artists, " Michelle said.

The women are telling their stories in the hopes they can protect other women from the same fate. Wayne Chinn was most recently married in September 2007. Less than a year later he has been using Craigslist.com personal ads to find another relationship. His ad states he’s looking for "A Great Woman." It states he is a chef and naval reserve officer. The On Your Side Investigators replied to the ad undercover, and Chinn responded within two and half hours, writing: "Forward a contact phone number, and possibly a picture."

In mid-May, Chinn set up a MySpace page. His profile says he is "single."

Chinn’s trail of wives began in Centralia, Wash., in the late 1970s, where he married wife No. 1  and had two children. After a divorce, he married his second wife. In 1981, an article in the Tenino Independent Newspaper described how Chinn burned down a lumber mill where he was a security guard. Prosecutors said he committed arson while trying to prove the company needed his services and should not lay him off.

After prison, Chinn lived with his third wife in Bellingham, Wash., and became the parent of his third child. While he was still married to her, court records show he was married to a fourth wife. Court records show Chinn got an annulment, called a "decree of invalidity of marriage" from one wife, and a divorce from the other and avoided prosecution for bigamy. Chinn’s third wife said that Chinn left her in a "financial black hole."

In 1999, Chinn dated Cynthia Castile while they worked together on a cruise ship. "Wayne came on board, and, of course, swept me off my feet, said all the right things I needed to hear at that point in my life," she recalled. But the honeymoon and marriage didn’t last.

Chinn went to prison in Washington state for bail jumping after he was convicted of victimizing someone else in a forgery crime. Castile said she spent about $14,000 defending her then husband.

After prison, the couple was going to start a new life in Estes Park, Colo. Castile said Chinn moved first to get established. Still back at their home in Tillamook, Ore., Castile would learn she wasn’t Chinn’s only wife.

"So I called what I thought was his place of employment, and Sharon says ‘He doesn't work here,’ and I said, 'He doesn't?' She says 'No, I fired him in December.'

And I say, 'That's interesting,' and she says, 'But he's still in the area, him and his wife have a gift shop in downtown Estes Park,' and I said, 'His what?' She says, 'His wife.' I said, 'I'm his wife.' She says, 'Well he's got two then, doesn't he.' "

Castile pressed charges, and Chinn was convicted of bigamy in Tillamook County.

"I don't know if he has the ability to tell the truth," said Michelle, looking back at her roller coaster engagement to Chinn. "It isn't about a love gone wrong. The whole thing was a scam", she says.

Michelle and some of the other women say Chinn played on their sympathies with a tale about his two children being killed in a car accident.

But the On Your Side Investigators have learned those children, from his first marriage, are now adults. They are both alive and well.

The women also say they had to live with the constant knowledge that Chinn could be called to duty anytime as a naval reserve officer. Cynthia Castile even received e-mail messages from two admirals. One message said "Commander Chinn" was assigned to "Homeland Defense."

While Chinn was with Michelle in Idaho, he got word he was being sent for duty in Iraq.

"I'm getting called by the reserve," said Chinn in a message left on Michelle’s answering machine. She began saving voice mail messages when somebody began using her credit cards in Oregon while Chinn was supposed to be overseas.

In February of last year, Chinn left another message and interrupted himself to give military orders: "Hey you. Hold on just a minute. Roger that enterprise 6-7. Message confirmed. Be prepared for that. Secondary is on its way to you as I speak. Anyway, just calling you."

Then Michelle got the news that Chinn was critically wounded in Iraq with a spinal cord injury. An army officer, identified as "Col. Christian," e-mailed Michelle about another terrible discovery: Chinn was also suffering from colon cancer.

By e-mail, Chinn berated Michelle for giving him "attitude" when she urgently inquired about his condition and chemotherapy. Chinn informed her that doctors were seeing an "increase in cancer cells."

Chinn asked Michelle to send him a care package to the military hospital in the Middle East that included tennis shoes. Three days later, in mid-September 2007, she bought him new Nikes. The On Your Side Investigators have determined that was the very same day Chinn was actually in Seattle getting married to his seventh wife.

Official Navy documents reveal Chinn actually left the Navy in 1978 after serving as a cook. During the period Chinn was supposedly in a war zone, in a two-front battle for his life, he was in the Northwest. He and his latest wife were in Reedsport, Ore., preparing to open a new restaurant at the Forest Hills Golf Course.

"He was calling me and giving me this very weak sounding voice from Iraq," said Michelle, "asking me to ‘be sure and not forget the Toyota payment, sweetheart,’ after he was married." Michelle said she had to declare bankruptcy after being left $65,000 in debt.

Late last month, Chinn and his current wife moved out of their duplex in Springfield, Ore. According to her family, they left behind unpaid debts. The couple moved to the mountains of Wyoming, where Chinn was hired at the White Pine Ski Resort near the town of Pinedale to manage the restaurant and hospitality staff.

In Wyoming someone posted another personal ad on Craigslist.com containing similar language to Chinn’s Oregon postings. The ad was signed "W."

When contacted by phone and asked about the many women, Chinn hung up and did not return follow-up phone calls.

Michelle said she filed complaints with police departments in multiple cities, but said each time she was told it is not a crime to lie. That leaves women Chinn has loved and left to wonder who is next and to marvel at how he keeps all the stories straight.

"I have no idea. I really, truly don't know how he does it", said Cynthia Castile. "It just amazes me. It really truly does."

By Dan Tilkin and KATU-TV Web Staff. View a video at this site.

For more information visit 2NewsTV.

Texas Man Indicted for Bigamy

A Harrison County, TX Grand Jury recently returned 30 indictments, including one of bigamy against Robert Ford Graham, 52, of Marshall.

District Attorney Joe Black said this is the first time in his tenure that an individual has been indicted on such a charge.

The DA said Graham, a former resident of Louisiana, moved to Texas and was residing at 602 Moore St. Here "he met a lady and married her," Black said. When the new wife learned of the other across the state line, she demanded that Graham divorce the other woman.

The matter was brought to the attention of the district attorney's office by the Louisiana woman and, Black said, his office also instructed Graham to divorce either one woman or the other.

"He refused," the DA said. "When a man tells you he's going to remain married to two women, what choice do you have but to file charges?

By Sandra Carson of Marshall News Messenger

SC Man Charged With Bigamy

A curious wife makes a startling discovery when she finds out her husband is married to at least one other woman.

Some might say it was a woman’s intuition that led Trista West to question her martial status. “we never got any papers served,” she said.

Trista married Kevin Smith five years ago. The marriage didn’t work and they both went their separate ways. The years passed but Trista never received her divorce papers. She decided to pay a visit to the courthouse.

“I said I was wondering if I was married to him? They said there’s another woman,” she said.

The clerk told her she was still married to Smith and so was another woman. The clerk also found a third wife.

The oldest marriage certificate shows Smith marrying a woman back in the 80’s. Investigators are unsure if he is still married to her because they have not been able to contact her. Trista married him in 2003. She is still legally married to him and so is another woman he married in 2006.

All three wives married signed their marriage certificates in Spartanburg County. The same judge signed wife number two and wife number three’s licenses.

“I guess he was just trying to have part of me with him,” Trista said. Investigators Smith was just too cheap to file the divorce papers.

Smith is charged with one count of bigamy. Investigators are still trying to find out if he is still married to the first of the three women he married.

Bigamy is a felony in South Carolina.

By Elizabeth Owens of WSPA-TV

Former SC HS Assistance Principal Faces Bigamy Charge

A man married in Florence, S.C., faces a charge of bigamy after his second wife came forward with information that he never divorced his first wife, authorities said.

Former Statesville High School assistant principal Lynn A. Jackson, 37, of Statesville was arrested by Statesville police on the felony charge. He is next scheduled to appear in Iredell County District Court on Aug. 25.

Assistant Statesville Police Chief Tom Anderson said Verleria Sims-Jackson initially contacted the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office in mid-July.

Iredell-Statesville Schools spokeswoman Dawn Creason said Jackson resigned his position last month.

Sims-Jackson told investigators she learned Jackson was still married to his first wife, Veronica, when Sims-Jackson and Jackson were married April 15, 2007, in Florence, S.C.

“I knew he was married before,” Sims-Jackson said. “(Veronica) knows me. This man wrote a song about me and sung it at our wedding. He was a model husband. I don’t know why they allowed this to go on. I have yet to find out.”

Sims-Jackson said she had an inkling her husband had not divorced his first wife and went through some of the papers in her husband’s briefcase in the garage. She said she asked him for his divorce decree for insurance purposes. A week later, Jackson received a complaint of divorce from his first wife, Sims-Jackson said.

Sims-Jackson said Jackson told her there must have been a mistake with the paperwork regarding his divorce.

“It was just story after story,” she said.

Jackson, who was the minister at Pleasant Hill Baptist church in Ansonville, initially tried to reconcile with her and they even went to counseling, she said.

“When it all came out, I had to face the church,” Sims-Jackson said. “For me to not tell you would mean I was part of the plan.”

Upon further investigation, it was learned that Jackson lived inside the city limits of Statesville so the case was referred to police, Anderson said.

Anderson said investigators confirmed that Jackson was indeed legally married to his first wife when he and Sims-Jackson were married.

“We verified there was no record of a divorce,” Anderson said.

The District Attorney’s office decided to prosecute the case and advised police to seek the felony warrant.

Jackson turned himself in to the police department and was released after posting an unsecured bond.

Anderson said Jackson admitted he was still married when he and Verleria tied the knot in April 2007.

He has since obtained a divorce from Veronica Jackson, Anderson said.

Because a marriage license is an official court record, Sims-Jackson is seeking an annulment and is asking for her name to be changed back to just Sims.

Bigamy is a Class I felony. An offender with no previous record could receive anywhere from three to eight months in jail.

By Bethany Fuller and Donna Swicegood of SCNow.com

Vermont Man Charged With Bigamy

One wife just wasn't enough for Elroy Lee Litchfield, according to police.

Litchfield, 56, of Montpelier, VT, was cited Thursday to appear in court for bigamy for allegedly tying the knot with a new bride before divorcing the woman he married in 1981.

Litchfield and Debra McAdam Hill, 45, were issued a marriage certificate in Montpelier on July 11, 2008. Their marriage was "solemnized" two days later in West Berlin by John Fitzhugh, who signed the license as the officiant.

But according to a marriage license on record with the City of Barre, Elroy Lee married Janet (Potvin) Litchfield on Oct. 17, 1981.

Janet Litchfield said – and Washington County Family Court records confirm – that she and Elroy never got a divorce, though they've been separated since 2003.

Janet and Elroy's daughter, Charlie Litchfield, broke the news to her mother after hearing it from a friend, Janet said.

"She said, 'Mom. I just heard dad got married.' I steamed about it all weekend," Janet recalled. In addition to fuming, Janet went to the Barre City Police Department and filled out a complaint, she said.

"It seems to be one of those cases where someone got married before they got a divorce," Barre City Police Chief Tim Bombardier said. On a Vermont marriage application, couples hoping to get hitched must say if they were previously married and how that marriage ended. If it ended due to death, the applicant must show a death certificate. If the reason was divorce or annulment, court papers are required.

Applications are confidential, however, and a request to view Elroy's application was denied, so it's unclear how he filled it out. But on the marriage certificate, Litchfield and Hill signed below a line that states: "We hereby certify that the information provided is correct to the best of our knowledge and belief that we are free to marry under the laws of Vermont."

Elroy did not return several calls seeking comment. Bigamy seems to be a rare crime in Vermont.

"I don't have a recollection of ever dealing with (a bigamy case)," said Washington County State's Attorney Tom Kelly, who has been a prosecutor in Vermont since 1987.

Cindy Maguire, the chief of the criminal division with the Vermont Attorney General's office, has been prosecuting in the state for almost 20 years, and she said she has never dealt with a bigamy case either.

Though bigamy may seem like an innocuous crime to some, Kelly said, it's important that the state deal with it."Some would say: 'Why enforce it?' Well, because it's the law," he said.

Kelly declined to comment publicly on what kind of action his office might take in Litchfield's case.

If Elroy is found guilty of the charge, his marriage to Debra McAdam Hill could end soon after it began. Under Vermont law, "Marriages contracted while either party has a living spouse or a living party to a civil union shall be void."

By Thatcher Moats of the Times Argus Staff

PS--This isn't the first time Mr. Litchfield has been in trouble.

WVA Man Arrested for Bigamy

A Mercer County man is in trouble with the law because he has too many wives. State Police say they've arrested 36-year-old William Conley Jr. for bigamy. Troopers say Conley has a wife in Mercer County and one in Hawaii.Police say Conley's local wife found out about the other spouse and turned him in. He's free tonight after posting bond.

By Christy Buckland of WVNS-TV

Police Charge NC Man With Bigamy

A Durham, NC man has been charged with bigamy after his wife tipped off Chapel Hill police that he was married to someone else.

John Dee Burton Jr., 43, was charged with one felony count of bigamy. He was released on bond after a brief appearance in court Thursday morning.

Police said Burton married one woman in 1993 and separated from her eight or nine years later. But never divorced her before marrying another woman.

"He figured, from what he told us, that because they were not living together anymore and some time had passed, that he was divorced,"said Dawn Hunter, an investigator with the Chapel Hill Police Department.

Both women lived in Chapel Hill, police said, and the second wife went to police to report the alleged bigamy after an earlier confrontation with the first wife.

"The other woman had approached her sometime back before she decided that she wanted something done," Hunter said, declining to specify what led to the police report.

Police declined to provide the names of the wives.

Investigators said they believe the alleged bigamy hadn't been caught earlier because Burton used "John Dee Burton" on the first marriage license and "John Dee Burton Jr." on the second one.

"From looking at the licenses themselves, you can tell where he left his 'Jr.' off at the end of his name, but he used the same date of birth," Hunter said.

Investigators said they don't believe Burton married any other women during this period. He did have an earlier wife, whom he divorced in 1989, police said.

"At this time, I do not see where there are any other victims," Hunter said.

From WRAL.com

• Reporter: Erin Hartness
• Photographer: Pete James
• Web Editor: Matthew Burns
  

PA Man Charged With Bigamy

Alec Steven Bohn, 27, of Georgetown Road, Silver Spring Township PA, was charged Wednesday with one count of misdemeanor bigamy by state police in Newport. Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot said Bohn's first wife, Monica Bohn, called authorities in May to say that her husband had married a woman in Perry County.

Cumberland County records show Alec and Monica Bohn were married on Oct. 21, 2006, Chenot said. Chenot said he checked Perry County records and found that Alec Bohn married Leah Marie Thomas of Blain on May 8. Chenot said Monica and Alec Bohn are still married but estranged.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 5 before District Judge Donald "Pete" Howell in Newport. Alec Bohn was issued a summons in the mail to appear in court that day and was not sent to prison or required to post bail. Efforts to reach both women were unsuccessful.

By Joe Elias of The Patriot News

Iowa Man Faces Bigamy Charge

A Des Moines, Iowa man is facing bigamy charges. Police say he was married to two women at the same time.

John Pratt married Angela Pratt in 1997, even though he never divorced his first wife in California until this year.

Bigamy is a serious misdemeanor, which carries a jail term of up to one year and possible $1,500 fine.

From WHO TV

Serial Groom Has Third Wife

 Two days after a Clayton, NC man was charged with being married to two women at once, a third woman came forward to say that she, too, is married to him.

There may be more, one of the women said Thursday.

Keron Lamont Wilkins, 30, of 104 Home Trace Circle was jailed this week after police charged him with one felony count of bigamy. Police accused Wilkins of marrying Shannetta Dawn Stone, 32, of Richmond, Va., on March 20 while he was married to Chaka Khan Miles Wilkins, his wife of eight years and the mother of his children, ages 4 and 8 months.

Wilkins remained in the Wake County jail Thursday evening in lieu of $3,000 bail. He could spend 10 months in prison if convicted.

He has been assigned a public defender, but none could be reached for comment Thursday. Efforts to reach his mother, Cynthia Moody, in Emporia, Va., Thursday were unsuccessful.

On Thursday, Jenean Baker, 34, of Atlanta said she and Wilkins wed Nov. 25, 2005, in Miami. Baker said that Wilkins had her name tattooed on his chest and that she has his name tattooed across her back inside two hearts with a lock holding them together.

Photos of their wedding show Wilkins wearing the same royal blue shirt and matching blue necktie with gold triangles that he wore when he married Baker and again when he married Stone at the Wake County Magistrate's Office.

Stone thinks Wilkins may be married to three more women living in Virginia and one more in Arizona. "Three more called me today," she said Thursday.

Stone said she shared a Cary apartment with Keron Wilkins while he was living with Chaka Wilkins in Clayton. Stone and Wilkins were wed nearly two months ago after a whirlwind romance. She met him late last year at a convenience store in Emporia.

Baker said she knew Keron Wilkins had been married to Chaka Wilkins. But she said her husband gave her the impression the relationship was over.

"About four months after we were married, Chaka called me and told me he was already married," Baker said.

Baker said she and Keron Wilkins never divorced. She said she was shocked by Chaka Wilkins' phone call and shocked again to find out in news accounts this week about his marriage to Stone.

Cary police Capt. Michael Williams said Baker faxed him a copy of the marriage certificate Thursday afternoon.

"We are looking into it. As you can see, they were married in Miami, so it might be out of our jurisdiction," Williams said. "We are talking with the district attorney's office to see how to proceed."

A rush to the justice

A native of Miami, Baker said she met Keron Wilkins in 1996 when they were both in the Army. They started dating, and he wanted to marry her then, but she said she thought they were too young.

She left the Army in 2001 and maintained an off-again, on-again relationship with him. They started dating seriously in early 2005, she said.

They planned to marry in 2006, she said, but Keron Wilkins rushed her to marry immediately.

Baker consented, and the two were married by a justice of the peace in Dade County, Fla.

"All my family was there," Baker said. "He had us all tricked."

The two lived together in Miami before moving to Raleigh in 2006. But she said she left him in 2006 and moved to Atlanta because he was seeing other women and because of repeated phone calls from Chaka Wilkins.

Baker said Keron Wilkins started calling her again this year wanting to reconcile. He told her they could live in Connecticut, where he had landed a job with IBM that paid more than six figures, she said. After much wooing by Wilkins, she consented.

She gave two weeks' notice to her employer, Kodak, where she was a help desk representative, and was looking forward to living near an aunt in New York.

"I even had a couple of job interviews lined up," she said.

'He got me good'

Last month, Keron Wilkins called to say the job in Connecticut had not come through because he had failed a security clearance. But he told her he could move to Atlanta so the two could start a new life together.

Baker said she had financially supported Wilkins, whom she described as "a charming, handsome smooth-talker."

"He got me," she said. "He got me good."

Baker said when she found out her husband was married to another woman in 2006 she went to the Miami police.

"They treated me so low," Baker recalled Thursday. "They told me he wouldn't get much time, a couple of months and maybe probation."

Baker, the single mother of a 9-year-old son, said she did not have the time or money to divorce Wilkins. Now she regrets she let the case fester. "I shouldn't have let it sit," she said.

(Researcher Lamara Williams contributed to this report.)

By Thomasi McDonald of the NewsObserver.com

Convicted VA Bigamist Pleads to Additional Charge

A convicted bigamist serving a 25-year prison sentence for setting fire to his ex-wife’s mobile home as she slept inside faces another 40 years for attempting to arrange her murder from behind bars. 

Timothy Lee Rankin, 49, on Tuesday stopped short of admitting guilt on a charge of solicitation to commit murder. By entering what is known as an Alford plea, Rankin acknowledged that the evidence against him was strong enough to result in conviction but continued to deny a role in the crime. 

An informant at the Middle River Regional Jail contacted the Augusta County Sheriff’s Department in September after overhearing Rankin and another inmate discuss the murder of Rankin’s ex-wife, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John Reed said in court Tuesday. 

Rankin offered his 1991 Ford Explorer in exchange for the hit, according to previous court testimony.
The second inmate also contacted authorities, handing over a three-page letter Rankin had given him detailing Rankin’s ex-wife’s place of employment, her typical routes to work, the hours she was usually at home, even the number of dogs kept on her property, Reed said. 

The second inmate, who was working with police, later told Rankin a fictional hit man named “Ramon” could carry out the murder, but that final arrangements should be made through Ramon’s girlfriend, Amanda Kodak, actually Investigator Candace Jones of the Augusta County Sheriff’s Department, Reed said.
“She could be contacted to make arrangements ‘to have her goose cooked,’ as the conversation went,” Reed said. 

When Jones asked Rankin during a subsequent conversation if he wanted his ex-wife dead, Rankin replied, “Yes,” Reed said. Rankin later attempted to send Jones further information about his ex-wife, including a list of identifying marks, Reed said. 

Rankin burned his ex-wife’s Stuarts Draft mobile home Nov. 28, 2006, after she reported him to police for bigamy. She escaped unharmed along with her 16-year-old daughter and 60-year-old disabled brother.
Augusta County Circuit Court Judge Thomas H. Wood accepted Rankin’s plea Tuesday and ordered a pre-sentencing report. Rankin faces between five and 40 additional years in prison.

By Cleve Wiese of the News-Virginian

NY Husband Gets Jail Time for Having Two Wives

Michael Husband said he victimized four people when he forged a local judge’s signature on fake divorce documents so he could marry his second bride.

The 23-year-old former Army corporal said his actions affected “the two women,” Clinton County Court Judge Patrick McGill and his own daughter.

“I know what I did was wrong, and I didn’t have the right to take the law into my own hands,” he said Thursday afternoon before he was sentenced to 90 days in jail for felony bigamy and misdemeanor forgery.

The Plattsburgh man said he was “trying to make something right” when he forged McGill’s signature on a divorce decree he created in an feeble effort to dissolve his first marriage only days before he tied the knot with his pregnant fiance in early 2005.

“I had a lot of desire to be a (good) father.”

His attorney, Marcia Moss, who was disappointed with the sentence, said there were “unusual circumstances” in the case and that her client acted out of love and had no other motive than to “facilitate a marriage.”

While Judge Kevin Ryan acknowledged that Husband has cooperated with authorities since his arrest and had no criminal record, he disagreed with the Probation Department’s recommendation of probation rather than incarceration.

He said forging a judge’s signature on a legal document “drives a stake through the court system” and “goes against the whole system of justice.”

“It is a very serious matter,” he told Husband before he imposed the 90 days in jail, five years probation and $360 in court expenses.

Ryan, who said he has never encountered a bigamy case while serving on the bench, noted that having a felony record is also “a severe sentence.”

Husband is no longer with either wife, neither of whom attended his sentencing.

He is now involved in a legal battle with his most recent wife for custody of their 2-year-old daughter. He has not been with his first wife since he left California in late 2004 to become an Army recruiter in New York.

Local officials and Husband’s second wife didn’t know about the forgery scheme until the couple separated and began fighting for custody of their daughter.

Husband, who was honorably discharged from the Army after five years of service, didn’t react when he heard the sentence and kept his hands clutched behind himself, waiting to be placed in handcuffs and brought to the Clinton County Jail.

By Andrea VanValkenburg of The Press-Republican

Another Member of Accused Bigamist Family Surrenders

Another member of a family of accused bigamists is under arrest, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.Police say Jesus Ruben Rodriguez illegally married five different women for money.

He surrendered Tuesday morning in Miami.Rodriguez's niece, Eunice Lopez, was arrested earlier this year on nine counts of bigamy. She pleaded not guilty, and is awaiting trial. Several other family members are also facing bigamy charges.

For more information, see UPI.com

From Local10.com.

Charged With Bigamy, Florida Woman Pleads Guilty to Lesser Offense

For nine months, Gladys Ferrer has maintained she didn't mean to be married to two men at the same time. For nine months, she has insisted the state should not have charged her with bigamy, a felony.

Ferrer, 49, of Lake Worth, was vindicated on Thursday when she agreed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor count of falsifying records. She was placed on probation for a year and will have no record of the misdemeanor conviction.

"This was a way for her to end this nightmare," said Ferrer's attorney, state Rep. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach.

Ferrer married Wilson Ferrer in February 1982. For most of their marriage, he was totally and permanently disabled as the result of a brain tumor, according to court records.

With her two sons now grown, Ferrer decided in January 2006 "it was time to move on with my life" after having cared for an invalid husband and "sacrificed my many years of youth," she wrote in a two-page account of events that transpired. So she decided to divorce her husband. And to marry another man.

She retained a lawyer who told her the divorce would be final in three months, Ferrer said. In July 2006 she married a guy named Dave, then returned from her honeymoon to learn that she was still married to Wilson Ferrer.

Unknown to Ferrer, and apparently her divorce attorney, divorcing an incapacitated person is a much lengthier process. And so, three months after marrying Dave, she filed for divorce from him. Three months after that, it was final.

But that didn't put an end to the embroglio. A probate attorney representing Wilson Ferrer contacted the sheriff's office and spilled the beans about his wife's multiple marriages. And the agency that was now her husband's guardian also was making her life miserable, she said.

Ferrer was arrested and charged with bigamy in September. "She lost her job because of this charge," Sachs said. "She was very embarrassed and very ashamed to be put in this spotlight."

The misdemeanor falsifying records charge she pleaded to was the marriage license to the second husband, stating she wasn't already married. "In her mind, she thought she was free to marry again," Sachs said.

While she's had the felony charge hanging over her head, Ferrer has been unable to visit the husband to whom she remains married at the assisted care facility at which he lives in West Palm Beach. That should end now, Sachs said.

"I think this is a law we need to revisit," the lawmaker said. "I think we need to modernize the laws on divorce when it comes to spouses who are incapacitated."

By Larry Keller or the Palm-Beach Post

Enrique Juárez Arrested for Bigamy

An El Paso, TX man is accused of being married to two women. According to the El Paso Sheriff's Office, Luis Enrique Juárez, 37, married his first wife in Florida in 2004. They separated years ago but never divorced.

Last August, Juarez married another woman, investigators said. The second marriage was discovered when the first wife found Juárez in the phone book. Officials said she called him about getting a divorce, and his second wife answered the phone. Investigators think this is El Paso's first bigamy arrest in at least 25 years.

From KVIA.com

Iowa Man Fined on Bigamy Charge

A 64-year-old Mason City, Iowa man has pleaded guilty to bigamy in Cerro Gordo County District Court. Jerry Weide married a woman in February. The court charged he was still married to another woman at the time. Weide was fined $350 this week. The charge is a serious misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to one year in jail.

From the Associated Press and Chicago-Tribune

Rockingham, County NC Bigamy Cases Rare, But Complicated

 Call it a whodunit of 'I do's.'

Madison, NC resident Kevin M. Taylor married Sabrina Bailey while he was still married to her sister, Sammantha Bailey Kennon, and Kimberly Isley, according to court records.

Sound complicated? You bet. Illegal? That, too, officials say. A Rockingham County grand jury indicted Taylor on Monday on a charge of bigamy.

Such cases are rare. Last year, 11 charges were filed across the state. None have been filed in Rockingham, NC since 1998, when there were two charges, according to the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts.

Since 2000, Guilford County has seen nine bigamy charges, the last one in 2006. In the past decade, 42 out of 318 charges statewide ended in convictions, state data shows.

In the grand scheme of crime, bigamy ranks at the lowest level of felonies.

You might be surprised at the company it keeps: such crimes as possessing cocaine, failing to register as a sex offender, larceny of a dog and commercial littering. Someone with no prior criminal record likely would receive probation, not jail time, according to the state's sentencing schedule.

Rockingham officials would not discuss the details of Taylor's case.

Taylor could not be reached for comment. A cell phone listed for him in court records is disconnected. A home phone in court records was answered by a woman who said the number does not belong to Taylor. Taylor's attorney, Jeffrey Berman, declined to comment.

Sammantha Bailey Kennon also faces a bigamy charge. Court records show she is married to James Randy Kennon and, according to a family member, still is.

Her charge remains in district court, said Phil Berger Jr., Rockingham County's district attorney. She was not indicted Monday, he said.

Sammantha Bailey Kennon, reached by phone, said she wouldn't answer any questions and referred calls to Berman, who also is her attorney.

Berger declined to discuss the cases. So what happened?

Court records barely untangle this confusing maze of marriages. (If you get lost, refer to the accompanying chart.)

Taylor, 31, married Sammantha Bailey Kennon, 21, on Sept. 19 in Virginia. Taylor then married Kennon's sister, Sabrina Bailey, 23, on Jan. 8 before a Rockingham County magistrate.

The Rockingham County Sheriff's Office charged Taylor and Sammantha Bailey Kennon with felony bigamy in April after learning that both still had spouses when they married in September. Deputies said the couple lied on their marriage license about previous marriages.

Taylor was still married to Kimberly Isley. They married on Aug. 25, 2006 and their divorce was not final until Feb. 18, court records show. Sammantha Bailey Kennon had separated from her husband, James Randy Kennon in July, according to James Kennon's mother, Lisa Carter.

Carter says she called authorities about the marriages because she fears for her granddaughter's safety. Bailey and Kennon have a 5-year-old daughter, Carter said. She is uncomfortable with her granddaughter staying with Taylor.

"This was wrong," Carter said. "And they knew what they were doing. "This isn't the first time Taylor has been married to more than one woman at a time, according to court filings.

Records show Taylor married Page Elizabeth Whitley on March 7, 2005. Their divorce wasn't final until Dec. 11, 2006. That means he was married for about four months to two women: Whitley and Isley.

It is unclear if investigators knew about the earlier overlapping marriages when they charged Taylor with a single count of bigamy.

Neither Berger nor sheriff's officials would discuss the earlier marriages found in court records.

Taylor, once married to three women at one time, appears now to be married to none.

On May 8, a Guilford County judge annulled Taylor's marriages to the Bailey sisters.

By Jennifer Fernandez of News-Record.com

Bobby Joe Summerford Arrested for Bigamy in Alabama

A north Alabama man accused of bigamy has been arrested after eluding authorities for eight years.

Fort Payne Police Chief David Walker said an arrest warrant had been issued in Cullman County in 2000 for 65-year-old Bobby Joe Summerford.

Walker said authorities recently discovered that Summerford was living in Fort Payne. He was arrested May 30th.

Besides the bigamy charge, Summerford also was charged with passing worthless checks. He was being held in the Cullman County Jail on $5,000 bond.

In Alabama, bigamy is a Class C felony. A conviction could result in a prison sentence of between one to 10 years.

From Al.com

Victim of NC Bigamist Says A National Database Should Be Established to Prevent Bigamy

A Clayton NC man who is thought to have as many as seven wives pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of bigamy, although it might not be the end of his legal woes.

Keron Lamont Wilkins, 32, was placed on probation for two years after he pleaded guilty in Wake County District Court, according to court records.

"This doesn't conclude anything," said Shannetta Dawn Stone, 32, the wife from Richmond, Va., with whom Wilkins had lived in Cary.

Police accused Keron Lamont Wilkins, 32, of marrying Stone on March 20 while he still was married to Chaka Khan Miles Wilkins -- his wife of eight years and the mother of two of his children.

The two women worked together to bring their husband to justice.

Stone learned from Wilkins' mother in April that he already was married to another woman. But Wilkins wouldn't fess up when Stone confronted him.

Chaka Wilkins, with whom he shared an apartment in Clayton, later found text messages he had sent Stone. She called her and told her about them.

Stone, who met Wilkins at a gas station, said she pursued criminal charges against him. She has been actively following the case, driving more than four hours from Richmond to see Wilkins plead guilty.

In an interview Tuesday, Stone said that traffic jams caused her to miss the hearing.

Wilkins' sentence should have been tougher, Stone said. The sentence range for a bigamy conviction is four to 10 months in prison, according to state law.

"I guess I should be happy because he has a felony on his record, and it will be difficult for him to get a job," Stone said. "Why is it that if you break the one covenant we have with God ... you can get away with a slap on the wrist?"

Wilkins refused to comment about the case.

Efforts to reach Charles Caldwell, a Wake public defender representing Wilkins, were unsuccessful.

In early May, another woman came forward saying she also is married to Wilkins. Jenean Baker of Atlanta said she and Wilkins wed Nov. 25, 2005, in Miami.

Efforts to reach Baker for comment also were unsuccessful.

Stone said she has been in contact with Baker, who is planning to pursue a bigamy charge against Wilkins in Miami. She thinks that charge will open the door for the pursuit of federal charges.

"Once we get him charged in another state, then it's an interstate crime," said Stone, who said she is trying to get an annulment.

Stone said she has been contacted by four more women -- three living in Virginia and one in Arizona -- who claim to be married to Wilkins.

There should be a national database established to help prevent similar situations from happening, Stone said: "We really need that so not only myself but the other women can be vindicated."

By Titan Barksdale of The News Observer

Greensburg Sailor Accused in Illegal Marriages

A Greensburg, PA man has joined a growing list of Navy sailors charged with participating in illegal marriages with foreign women in exchange for cash and increased housing allowances.

Adam Douglas Leichliter, 24, had his federal criminal case moved Tuesday to Pittsburgh from Virginia, where court records show he is expected to plead guilty and be sentenced. He is charged with entering into marriage to evade immigration laws, marriage fraud and making a false claim.

The gunner's mate 3rd Class was discharged May 3, a Navy spokeswoman said. She declined to say whether his discharge was honorable.

Neither Leichliter nor his attorney, federal public defender Jay J. Finkelstein, could be reached for comment.

"There are specific, approved procedures to obtain citizenship in our country," Chuck Rosenberg, U.S. attorney in Eastern Virginia, said last month when the charges originally were filed. "Cheating is not one of them."

Prosecutors claim Leichliter was one of 33 people -- 10 active-duty sailors, seven former sailors and 16 foreigners -- charged last month. Leichliter is specifically accused of being part of a scheme to marry women from Morocco and Eastern Europe in the country on student visas in order for the foreign spouses to become permanent residents, perhaps even citizens.

In February 2006, Leichliter was approached by another sailor aboard the U.S.S. Wasp, an amphibious assault ship based in Norfolk, Va., who told him he could receive bonus housing allowances for marrying a foreign national whose visa was about to expire, according to a 53-page indictment.

Leichliter married Natalia Kavaleva, of Belarus, on March 28, 2006, during a civil ceremony in Norfolk. After the ceremony, prosecutors said Kavaleva gave Leichliter $3,000 -- which he used to pay off the sailor who recruited him, a Lithuanian woman who found the bogus brides and an unnamed woman.

Kavaleva and Leichliter took photographs at the courthouse "to make it appear as if it was a real wedding," the indictment states. "Kavaleva told Leichliter they would have to get to know each other for the interview with immigration."

Leichliter falsely claimed to live with Kavaleva in her Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment and received $18,829.95 in housing allowances to which he was not entitled, prosecutors said. The couple opened joint telephone and bank accounts, and Leichliter made Kavaleva the benefactor of his Navy life insurance policy -- "all for the purposes of making it appear as if they were in a bona fide marriage," prosecutors said.

When the scheme began to unravel this year, one of the recruiters told Leichliter, "Don't give anyone else up," and "Deny, deny, deny," prosecutors said.

The gunner's mate 3rd Class was discharged May 3, a Navy spokeswoman said. She declined to say whether his discharge was honorable.

Neither Leichliter nor his attorney, federal public defender Jay J. Finkelstein, could be reached for comment.

"There are specific, approved procedures to obtain citizenship in our country," Chuck Rosenberg, U.S. attorney in Eastern Virginia, said last month when the charges originally were filed. "Cheating is not one of them."

Prosecutors claim Leichliter was one of 33 people -- 10 active-duty sailors, seven former sailors and 16 foreigners -- charged last month. Leichliter is specifically accused of being part of a scheme to marry women from Morocco and Eastern Europe in the country on student visas in order for the foreign spouses to become permanent residents, perhaps even citizens.

In February 2006, Leichliter was approached by another sailor aboard the U.S.S. Wasp, an amphibious assault ship based in Norfolk, Va., who told him he could receive bonus housing allowances for marrying a foreign national whose visa was about to expire, according to a 53-page indictment.

Leichliter married Natalia Kavaleva, of Belarus, on March 28, 2006, during a civil ceremony in Norfolk. After the ceremony, prosecutors said Kavaleva gave Leichliter $3,000 -- which he used to pay off the sailor who recruited him, a Lithuanian woman who found the bogus brides and an unnamed woman.

Kavaleva and Leichliter took photographs at the courthouse "to make it appear as if it was a real wedding," the indictment states. "Kavaleva told Leichliter they would have to get to know each other for the interview with immigration."

Leichliter falsely claimed to live with Kavaleva in her Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment and received $18,829.95 in housing allowances to which he was not entitled, prosecutors said. The couple opened joint telephone and bank accounts, and Leichliter made Kavaleva the benefactor of his Navy life insurance policy -- "all for the purposes of making it appear as if they were in a bona fide marriage," prosecutors said.

When the scheme began to unra