An Indiana man faces a bigamy charge in Oldham County for marrying a woman in Crestwood in April 2008 a week after marrying another woman in Louisville.
James Eugene House, 53, of Sellersburg, Ind., is charged with marrying Lisa Gail Ross, 40, of New Albany, Ind., one week after he married Christina Renea Settle, 41, of Poland, Ind.
Oldham Commonwealth’s Attorney Barry Moore said House will be arraigned in Oldham County Circuit Court on Sept. 2.
The Class D felony can bring one to five years in jail, Moore said.
Ross and House signed their marriage license on April 16 in the Oldham County Clerk’s office, according to records. One week earlier, on April 9, he signed a marriage license with Settle in the Jefferson County Clerk’s office.
A Floyd County, Ind., Superior Court judge signed a document on July 28, 2009, declaring the marriage between Ross and House unlawful and void. The order says Ross learned after the wedding that House was married to Settle. The document also says House was still married to a third woman, Leslea D. Fields-House, whom he wed on Jan. 17, 1989, in New Albany.
The document says Ross and House separated on or about May 1, 2008.
A fourth woman, Georgia Newsom, said in an interview that she was married to House at the time he signed the marriage license with Ross. She said they had married in 2007 and later separated, and their divorce was final in November 2009.
In a letter sent in February 2010 to the Oldham County courthouse, House wrote that he married Lisa Ross thinking a divorce with his wife had gone through.
He wrote that he and Ross decided the marriage was a mistake, and they’re now divorced.
In the letter, he asks that the charge be dismissed.
“I am very sorry for any wrong I did before this court,” he wrote.
House was charged in April 2009 in Bullitt County with knowingly exploiting an adult for more than $300 — for conning an elderly woman out of money — and criminal possession of a forged instrument. Sheriff's Detective Scotty McGaha said that charge was later dismissed.
In 2009 he also was charged in Jefferson County with knowingly exploiting an adult for more than $300 — for conning a woman a woman out of money — theft by deception, theft by failure to make required dispensation of property, theft of a firearm and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon.
House is being held at Metro Corrections.
By Andrea Uhde Shepherd of The Courier-Journal
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