Bigamy brings big problem for Erie, PA ex-bride

For the past six years, Jaclyn Davis-Williams has wanted to ditch her hyphenated name and leave her troubled marriage behind. But she's still linked to the man she once loved. Why has breaking up been so hard to do? Davis-Williams was married to a bigamist.

Davis-Williams, an Erie resident who had never married, met Buffalo resident Antoine M. Williams over the Internet in February 2003. A district judge married them in Erie on March 15, 2004.

"I thought he was the one," said Davis-Williams, now 35. Turns out that Williams, now 37, was the one and only to more than one woman at the same time. Though he stated on the marriage license that he was divorced, and though he said he signed a separation agreement, he was still married to his first wife, from Buffalo, when he wed Davis-Williams.

She got suspicious when her friends raised concerns about Williams. Davis-Williams contacted the woman her husband said he had divorced and learned the truth: They were still legally husband and wife. "I didn't want to believe it," Davis-Williams said. "He's a great manipulator."

Davis-Williams called Erie police, who charged Williams with bigamy, a second-degree misdemeanor, in October 2004. He pleaded guilty. Erie County Judge John J. Trucilla in January 2006 sentenced him to two years of probation and 25 hours of community service and ordered him to compensate Davis-Williams $2,071 for financial problems the marriage created.

I covered the case for the Erie Times-News and talked to Davis-Williams. I wished her luck and told her to call me if anything came up again. Davis-Williams telephoned the other day. We laughed over her case -- she has a great sense of humor about it -- but she was serious when she told me why she needed to talk, all these years later.

She said she hasn't been able to get a permanent split from her spurious spouse.

Davis-Williams said she had gone to a number of lawyers, and a divorce clinic, but kept running into a conundrum: How do you get divorced from someone who had no legal right to marry you in the first place?

"Am I married? Or am I not married?" she said. "I'm in a little legal limbo."

Representing herself, Davis-Williams filed for divorce in January in Erie County Court. The case halted after the courts refused to waive the $199 filing fee for Davis-Williams, a nurse's aide who said she could not afford the costs. Williams, last known to live in Pittsburgh, still owes Davis-Williams $486 in restitution, according to court records. Davis-Williams has not given up. She has contacted another lawyer to get a divorce or an annulment.

Davis-Williams has a big reason to start anew. She has fallen in love again. She might want to get married. "But,'' she said, referring to her phony husband, "I got a holdup."

Her advice to brides-to-be: "Background checks."

By Ed Palattella of GoErie.com