Marvin Frazer married a woman named Rebecca in New York in 2000. She left him three years later.
"She said she was going on vacation for a week. It's been a very long week," Frazer, 45, said Tuesday.
He heard from her again in 2006, he said, in an e-mail suggesting he should pay for half of their divorce. He later heard from his parents that she told them the divorce was final.
Turns out, Frazer should have double checked.
In July 2007, at First Presbyterian Church in Zephyrhills, he married a woman named Ilene. (This was his third marriage. There was another in 1992 that lasted until 1998.) Then last fall, Frazer got a knock on his door from two Zephyrhills police detectives investigating an allegation of bigamy.
Rebecca — whom Frazer met in an Internet chat room — had found his MySpace page where pictures from his 2007 wedding were posted. She called the authorities.
Frazer, a preschool worker, was arrested shortly before Christmas and spent four days in jail.
In court Tuesday, he pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct. Bigamy, the law says, is having a living spouse and marrying another. Disorderly conduct is defined as acts that are "of a nature to corrupt the public morals, or outrage the sense of public decency, or affect the peace and quiet of persons who may witness them."
Bigamy is a felony. Disorderly conduct is a misdemeanor.
Frazer was sentenced to time served.
He answered Judge Pat Siracusa's questions politely and said little else.
"You're down to one wife," the judge told him, noting the divorce had gone through. "That's good."
It was a contrast to his last court appearance, when Frazer mouthed off a little about how long the case was taking. But prosecutors only agreed to the plea deal on the condition that Frazer obtain and finalize a divorce from Rebecca.
A judge signed it last week.
"Unfortunately, she got her way," Frazer said. He paid for the whole thing: $583.
His current wife, he said, has stuck by him through the ordeal.
Later this summer they plan to renew their vows.
By Molly Moorehead of The St. Petersburg Times.
I never ever said I was going on vacation. People read one side of the story forget about the other person. There are always 2 sides to every story :)
Posted by: becky | 06/26/2009 at 12:02 PM