A man already wanted on bigamy and theft warrants in Georgia is
being sought by Jacksonville, FL police on grand theft charges after
$12,000 in jewelry was stolen from a woman he proposed to marry, police
said.
A man identified as Douglas Ulysses Johnson, 56, posed as an Army
lieutenant colonel who served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and
was assigned to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, according to the
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
A Jacksonville woman told police she met Johnson online and that the
two began making wedding plans after the proposal. Police were told
Johnson disappeared while the woman, whose name was not available
Thursday, was at work. His belongings and the jewelry were gone,
according to police.
Johnson was last known to be driving a red four door Nissan with a
Florida tag. He is wanted in Savannah, Ga., on bigamy and theft charges
and for absconding from parole in Michigan, according to police who
said he is also wanted in California.
An arrest warrant charging Johnson with grand theft was issued Thursday.
Anyone with information about Johnson's whereabouts is asked to contact
JSO at 904-630-0500 or Crimestoppers at 866-845-TIPS to remain
anonymous.
When David Walters married his wife, Annie, in June 2006, he thought he knew everything about her. He knew she was pretty, sweet and charming. He knew she didn’t
associate much with her family, and they didn’t associate with her.
But what Walters didn’t know was, perhaps, the most important thing: Annie was already married to someone else.
Annie Marie Scott, as she is called on an arrest warrant at the
Scotland County Clerk of Court, was charged last week with a felony
count of bigamy.
Scott is employed by ABP Food Services, which contracts food services in the Scotland County Jail. Walters, a Laurel Hill resident, said he was the one who told the
Sheriff’s Office about his wife’s multiple marriages. He did so more
than a month after he learned about it from Scott’s mother. According to the arrest warrant, Scott was already married to Christopher Lynn Scott.
Christopher Scott is in a penitentiary in South Carolina serving a
12-year sentence for assault and battery with intent to kill, according
to the South Carolina Department of Correction’s Web site. Walters said he learned Annie had been estranged from Christopher Scott for several years.
Annie Scott, who is 32, refused to comment on the situation Wednesday afternoon.
Walters said Annie’s leaving has caused pain in his family. A family that, he said, embraced her with open arms. David Walters and Annie Scott met about five years ago, when Walters
needed a secretary for the business he had started in Aberdeen. A relationship slowly started brewing between them, he said.
Two-and-a-half years later, the couple moved to Mobile, Ala., where
Walters worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It was where the couple was married.
In November 2008, however, their lives changed. Walters’ father,
Robert, asked Annie and David to return to Laurel Hill so they could
help take care of David’s mother, Edith, who is dying of cancer. It was decided the couple would move in with David’s parents to help
take care of Edith and possibly bring in some income to the struggling
family, David Walters said.
“It was a win-win situation all around,” he said.
Edith showed Annie how to manage the bills and the household
expenses so she could take over when Edith died, Robert Walters said.
David Walters, who is 45, suffers from congestive heart failure and
does not work. He is awaiting disability. He said he and his father now
take turns helping his mother, who is aided by hospice workers.
A few months into the new arrangement, David said he received a
phone call from Annie Scott’s mother, who lives in Scotland County.
She told David her daughter had been married before but had never gotten a divorce. David Walters said he didn’t want to confront Scott with what he’d
learned because of his mother’s illness. So he decided to sit on the
information and bring it up later. But not long after Walters found out, Scott decided to leave him, he said. She said she didn’t like the way Walters’ 14-year-old daughter was talking to her, and that it was time for her to go.
Scott spoke with Edith and Robert Walters, who tried to convince her to stay and work it out.
She left anyway, and the family said their hearts were broken.
“She can’t just walk in and out of people’s lives, and doing them dirty the way she did,” Edith Walters said.
Her husband, Robert, said: “She didn’t just break man’s law; she broke God’s law.”
David said he tried to patch things up with his wife. He said he
wanted to work things out — he told her he wanted to help her get a
divorce from Christopher Scott.
But Annie refused, he said. That’s when he called a lawyer and asked for advice.
In early February, Walters called the Scotland County Sheriff’s Office and told deputies about his wife’s previous marriage.
He gave deputies a copy of a marriage certificate between her and
Christopher Scott that he had obtained from the county’s records
office. Walters believes the couple was married about 14 years ago.
Annie Scott was arrested March 3 and released on a written promise
to appear in court. Her trial date is set for May 4, according to the
arrest report.
Walters said he hopes the trial will bring closure to the
relationship for him and a situation he likens to a movie on the cable
channel Lifetime. Even though they may not be legally married, Walters said he doesn’t have the money to divorce her right now. And if he waits on Annie to divorce him, well, he may be waiting a while, he figures.
But more than that, he’s hurt she left, leaving him to wonder which
things about her were real and honest and which weren’t, he said. “I’m just frustrated how someone can do this, and walk away and live a life,” he said.
Maybe the thought of all the Valentine's Day shopping he had to do
pushed him over the edge. Or maybe the 19th wife was one too many.
Whatever it was, Oliver John Killeen turned himself in to Toronto police last week, confessing to bigamy. The 71-year-old told police he has 19 wives.
Police
say the man has multiple spouses in Canada, England and Ireland, and
has never obtained a legal divorce for any of his marriages.
"And that's what we know of. We might still find more," he said.
It seems Killeen's a bit of a celebrity across the pond. He was the star of the British documentary "The Conman with 14 Wives." That was five wives ago, by the way. Killeen spent three years in a British jail for bigamy in 2004 and was then deported to Canada.
Killeen spoke about his multiple relationships in an interview with an Irish newspaper in 2006.
"I
gave women what they wanted. If they were foolish enough to marry me
within a few weeks of meeting me that Biagwas up to them. They should
have asked more questions," Killeen said.
"Conning women is easy.
I studied psychology and behaviour patterns. I presented myself as a
dashing, suave sort of guy and women fell for it."
In that
interview Killeen described how he began a "collection of wives" to
help care for his family. His second wife only stayed with him for 10
days, so he quickly remarried without waiting for a divorce.
"Getting divorced is costly and time-consuming, so I decided not to bother," he said.
Yeah. Who has the time, eh?
Mr.
Killeen also gained infamy in Ireland for posing as a celebrity
psychologist, using fake degrees to set himself up as Dr. Oliver J.
Killeen, PhD. He ran that scam for a while until he was called to
testify in court and the prosecutor unravelled his web of lies.
His ability to reinvent himself had proven irresistable to women, he said. Killian had eight kids from his first marriage in the 70s and another child from another wife.
Killeen is scheduled to appear in court March 24 to answer to the charge of bigamy.
So
ladies, if you or anyone you know is married to Oliver John Killian you
are asked to contact Toronto police at 416-808-5300 or Crime Stoppers
at 416-222-8477.
In a big city like Toronto, police are used to handling just about
any situation, from murder and sexual assault, to arson and fraud. But
it's not often they lay charges of bigamy.
They did on Thursday, however, arresting 71-year-old Oliver John Killeen and charging him with the rare crime.
Police
allege that Killeen married a number of women in Ontario and other
parts of the world including England and Ireland, but never divorced
any of the others.
It's not immediately clear if the other
wives he's accused of marrying know about each other's existence. But
at least one did - she apparently came forward on Thursday, leading to
the single charge of bigamy.
Killeen has been in trouble
before. He served three years in a British jail for the same offence
back in 2004, before being deported to Canada. He's known to have at least nine children.
The suspect has been released on strict conditions, but police won't confirm whether one of them is keeping away from women.
Cops believe there may be more victims and anyone with information is asked to contact police at (416) 808-5300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at (416) 222-TIPS (8477), online or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637).
Killeen will appear in court on March 24th.
From Toronto CityNews.com. For more information, see the article from CTV.
An Independence, MO wife got a big surprise when she saw her husband marrying someone else on television, she said. The
woman's mother notified her when she saw William Rivera on a local news
report about the mass wedding in Independence on Valentine's Day last
year.
Rivera showed up at a Jackson County, MO Courthouse Tuesday.
It
took nearly a year for attorneys to gather the paperwork necessary to
accuse the father of six of having two wives. KCTV5 talked to Rivera's first wife Tuesday.
She did not want to be identified, but she talked about how she felt when she saw her husband marrying another woman."I
feel like he has pushed us off in a corner, you know, like tried to
hide us in the shadows and forget about us, but you can't, so I'm glad
it's all coming to light," she said.
She and Rivera were married
nearly 10 years ago in front of a justice of the peace in Independence,
the same judge who performed the second marriage, she said. She said
their relationship became rocky when he left for Iraq to report for
National Guard duty in 2005. He was gone for nearly a year.
Rivera wouldn't comment as he left court Tuesday, but he did refer to his first wife as his "ex."
Rivera is expected back in court next month. Rivera's first wife said she will not seek a divorce. "I know that Jesus performs miracles. His word says it," she said.
James Byron Montgomery
agreed with Texas 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother on Monday. He
knows he should marry just one woman at a time. It’s less complicated, and it will keep him out of felony court.
Strother placed the 55-year-old Moody man on deferred probation for
three years and fined him $500 on Monday. Montgomery pleaded guilty
last month to bigamy, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10
years in prison.
“The next time, just marry one at a time, OK?” Strother told Montgomery after his sentencing hearing.
“OK, your honor,” Montgomery said. Montgomery declined comment Monday.
However, he told the Tribune-Herald in October after his
indictment that he married Tiffiney Still in May 2007 in Las Vegas
without first divorcing his third wife, Rebecca Montgomery.
“I used to drive a truck, and me and my fiancee, Tiffiney, were in
Vegas, and we just, like, got a wild hair,” Montgomery has said. “We
knew it was against the law. We just really didn’t feel married. We
just, like, did it. I didn’t really think it was going to be a real
marriage.”
Rebecca Montgomery found out about the Las Vegas wedding and reported it to the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office.
Montgomery said he filed for divorce the same month that he married
Still and that he and Rebecca Montgomery, who now lives in Palestine,
had been separated for about four months at the time.
“I wish they would go after real criminals instead of people who fall in love,” Montgomery said in October.
A Springfield, PA man has pleaded not guilty to charges he allegedly
committed bigamy by getting married to a woman in Ambler while still
married to a North Carolina woman.
John A. Melchiorre Jr., 38,
of the 300 block of Garden Road, waived his arraignment in Montgomery
County Court and entered not guilty pleas to charges of bigamy, false
swearing in an official proceeding and unsworn falsification in
connection with a July 2008 incident.
By waiving his
arraignment, Melchiorre did not have to appear before a judge for a
formal reading of the charges lodged against him. Melchiorre, who
remains free on bail, now faces a trial on the charges. A trial date
has not yet been scheduled.
If convicted of all the charges at trial, Melchiorre faces a possible maximum sentence of three to six years in state prison.
An
investigation of Melchiorre began last August when a North Carolina
woman contacted county detectives regarding bigamy allegations. The
woman told detectives she married Melchiorre in August 1994 in North
Carolina and that Melchiorre moved from their marital residence in June
2008.
The North Carolina woman told authorities she had recently
learned that Melchiorre married again in Montgomery County while he was
still married to her.
The investigation revealed that Melchiorre
and his new bride-to-be applied for a marriage license at the county
courthouse on July 30, 2008, according to a criminal complaint. When
asked on the license application if he had any prior marriages,
Melchiorre allegedly said he did not. Melchiorre also allegedly
provided false information regarding his mother’s maiden name on the
marriage license application, according to the arrest affidavit.
“The
defendant knowingly falsified this document in an attempt to conceal
his first marriage to the victim,” county Detective James Carbo wrote
in the arrest affidavit.
The investigation revealed that
Melchiorre and his second bride were married during an Aug. 9, 2008,
wedding ceremony at Calvary United Methodist Church on Park Avenue in
Ambler, court documents indicate.
A Marshfield, WI man is charged in Clark
County with marrying more than one woman at a time.
Thirty-one-year-old James Boatwright faces a charge of bigamy.
He's accused of marrying Elizabeth Boatwright in Loyal in 2005
while also having a wife in Missouri. Court records show Boatwright
also married Crystal Evans in Maryville, Mo. in April 2002, but the
two were not divorced until December 2007.
Boatwright told police he didn't tell his second wife about his
previous marriage because he had "put that part of his life behind
him."
Boatwright has an initial court appearance March 2. The bigamy
charge carries a maximum penalty of one and a-half years in prison.
He got his marriage license and he and his new
bride got hitched. But instead of celebrating his life as a newlywed,
the groom may be headed to jail. It turns out he was still married to another woman, prosecutors said.
Anthony Richardson, 40, of Las Cruces, NM, was indicted last week by a Dona Ana County Grand Jury on one count of bigamy.
The
district attorney's office said Richardson had married his first wife
and had children, but the couple separated. Richardson told police he
assumed his first wife had taken care of everything with the divorce.
Deputy
District Attorney Amy Orlando said Ricahrdson never confirmed that he
was divorced, instead obtained a marriage license and married wife
number 2 on June 3. The second marriage is not considered legal.
Court records show that the first wife has since filed for divorce in Nov. 2008. That case is still pending.
The groom was not arrested, but the district attorney's office is asking for his arrest and that his bond be set at $15,000.
Bigamy is a fourth-degree felony that carries a possible 18-month jail sentence.
Marvin
Robert Frazer, 44, was arrested on a warrant for bigamy Tuesday. He is
being held in the Land O'Lakes, FL jail in lieu of $2,000 bail. Bigamy is
defined as entering the act of marriage while still being married to
another person.
Frazer lives in Zephyrhills and, according to his
arrest report from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, he works as a
cook. The location of his employment isn't known.
Frazer is about 6 feet tall and weighs 330 pounds. He has tattoos and scars and thin brown hair that skims his shoulders.
He
was born in Rochester, N.Y., and seems to have only one other arrest in
Florida — driving with a suspended license in Pasco County in March
2007.
That arrest was a few months before his marriage to Ilene
Finn, also 44, on July 7, 2007. According to the marriage license, they
were wed by John Harris at First Presbyterian Church in Zephyrhills.
Finn, whose birthday was Sunday, also has one arrest for driving with a
suspended license. She was not able to be reached Wednesday.
The
Zephyrhills Police Department is investigating the charge of bigamy and
would not release any information about the case. Phone calls to the
State Attorney's Office were not returned.
It is not known how many wives Frazer allegedly has. Other information about the case is also not known. A records search indicates Frazer might have another wife in New York, but she could not be reached Wednesday.
A Chattanooga, TN minister has been arrested on a charge of bigamy. Harold Garth Jr., 47, of Rogers Road, was taken into custody after
two women who said they both are still legally married to him went to
General Sessions Court to take out a warrant. Garth appeared before Chief Magistrate Larry Ables and bond was set at $500.
Garth claims he divorced one of the women before marrying the other. But he was dismissed as associate pastor of the church he has been serving - Greater Shiloh Baptist Church - on Sunday.
Mary Lou Garth said she married Garth in September of 2006. She said they later separated, but did not get a divorce.
She said she met Patricia Garth at work recently, who is also married to Garth. The women exchanged notes and then decided to go to the courthouse together to take action to seek the criminal action. Harold Garth and Patricia were married in 2000, but allegedly did not get a divorce.
The two women said they found that Garth allegedly married Shannne Renee Garth in 1988 and also did not get a divorce from her. They said they believe he may also be married to a woman in Fulton County, GA.
A man who got married three more times before a divorce was finalized will serve three months in jail for bigamy. James Moyer, 63, of Waynesboro, VA received a six-month jail sentence in
Augusta County Circuit Court last week for each of the three counts of
bigamy, to run concurrently, with three months suspended.
A former truck driver, Moyer did not respond to divorce papers filed
in 1996 by Naomi Ruth Moyer, his third wife. At the time, the couple
had been separated for two years, according to investigator Aaron
Leveck of the Augusta Sheriff's Office.
The divorce became final on Nov. 21, after he had remarried in 2000, 2003 and 2005.
James Moyer said in court that he was surprised at the charges. "I tell you, it was a complete shock," he said. "I don't know what happened."
He recalled signing some papers while home in between shifts as a
truck driver but said he was unsure what he signed at the time.
Naomi Ruth Moyer had been turned down this year for Social Security
benefits because she learned she was still legally married to James
Moyer. She then reported that to the Augusta Sheriff's Office, which
began an investigation.
James Moyer, who has a robbery conviction from 1976 in Albemarle
County, could have received a sentence from two years and three months
to seven years and eight months, but Augusta Assistant Commonwealth's
Attorney Thomas Knoll Jr. declined to pursue the stiffer sentence.
Call it a mother's intuition. Carrollton, TX resident Barbara Casey said she had an uneasy feeling from
the start about the man her daughter met at a local gym this summer and
began dating.
Bryon D. Drennan, 36, was almost too
polite, too controlled, said Mrs. Casey. And he quickly seemed to
become obsessed with her daughter, Stefanie Nicole Casey, a 28-year-old
former schoolteacher.
"Something didn't feel right about the way he presented himself," Mrs.
Casey said of her daughter's suitor. "I never really saw violence, but
there were things that gave me concern shortly after she began seeing
him."
Two days after Thanksgiving, Stefanie's body was
found under a pile of rocks on the shores of Lake Ontario in upstate
New York, near where the couple were married Nov. 3.
A
grand jury there last week indicted Mr. Drennan on second-degree murder
charges. Wayne County, N.Y., District Attorney Richard Healy said he
believes that Mr. Drennan, who is being held in the Wayne County jail
without bail, killed his bride because she wanted to leave him and
return to Texas.
"They'd only been married a month, but he was abusive," Mr. Healy said. "She was leaving him to go home."
Bigamy complaint
Mr. Drennan's legal woes aren't contained to New York. Before his
arrest, Carrollton police began a separate investigation into a bigamy
complaint against him filed by his first wife, Rhonda, whom he'd
married in 1994.
Last month, Rhonda Drennan told police that she and her husband split
up over the summer, and that he remarried before their divorce was
finalized. Denton County records show that the couple's divorce
petition was filed on Aug. 26, but the final hearing isn't scheduled
until Feb. 23, 2009. Reached by phone, Ms. Drennan declined to be interviewed.
"We felt we had enough evidence to prove bigamy to send it to the
[Denton County] prosecutor's office," Carrollton police Officer Dustin
Bartram said. The case is now in the hands of prosecutors who will
determine how to proceed.
Bigamy – a third-degree felony
that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $10,000 fine –
is a very rare charge. Officer Bartram said Carrollton has had only
five bigamy cases filed since 1993.
"The marriage they
had is not legal," said Mrs. Casey of Stefanie's union with Mr.
Drennan. She recalled Mr. Drennan telling her daughter that he was
divorced when the two met this summer. Soon the couple began living
together, and Mrs. Casey and her husband, Robert, saw little of their
daughter. "He isolated her from the family," Mrs. Casey said.
Move to New York
The couple moved to New York around the beginning of November and got
married in the town of Williamson. Mr. Drennan had lost his job with an
accounting firm and thought he'd have better prospects in upstate New
York, where his family still lived, Mrs. Casey said.
Far from her family and Texas roots, Stefanie seemed to realize that she'd made a mistake, said her mother. On one of her rare phone calls home, she told her mother that she was
being abused and said Mr. Drennan had been arrested for domestic
violence while they were on their honeymoon in Honolulu.
Police in Honolulu confirmed that Mr. Drennan was arrested Nov. 5 for
"abuse of a household member" and was ordered to stay away from the
victim for 24 hours. Stefanie called police from a Waikiki hotel and
reported that Mr. Drennan had injured both of her arms.
Two weeks after the honeymoon, Mrs. Casey said, Stefanie was ready to leave Mr. Drennan. "We'd made arrangements for her to come back home the day before
Thanksgiving, but he convinced her to come back," Mrs. Casey said.
Mr. Drennan telephoned to tell the Caseys that Stefanie would not be coming back to Texas after all. "He wouldn't let her call," Mrs. Casey said. "But she got on the phone and told us she loved us." That was the last time the Caseys spoke to their daughter.
Thanksgiving call
On Thanksgiving Day, Mr. Drennan's mother called Williamson police to
report that he and his new wife were missing, New York State Police
Capt. Philip Pettine said. Later that day, Mr. Drennan returned to his
family's home, saying he had put Stefanie on a plane back to Texas.
The next day, police received a call from a woman who reported seeing a
man carry a plastic bag into the woods on Thanksgiving Day. She told
police that her son located the bag and found bloody clothing inside.
Capt. Pettine said the bag also contained other evidence: a
prescription bottle with Bryon Drennan's name on it, and a wooden
heart. When Mr. Drennan was questioned later that day, he admitted that
he had struck his wife in the head with a 10-pound weight from a
barbell set and stabbed her with the wooden heart, authorities said.
But Mr. Drennan said that he acted in self-defense and that Stefanie
was alive when he last saw her, Capt. Pettine said. Two days after
Thanksgiving, police – acting on another tip – found Stefanie's body
along the Lake Ontario shoreline.
Last week, the Casey family held a memorial service for their only daughter. "We want Stefanie to be remembered for the special person she was, and
not for this crime," Mrs. Casey said. "She was a victim, and I hope
that her story might save the life of someone else in this situation."
L.J. Hare reluctantly admitted Thursday he has had at least one wife too
many.
Hare, 41, who also uses the names "Leonard John" and "Lyn Jon," pleaded no
contest to felony bigamy, accepting a plea deal that requires him to spend
18 months in prison.
Assistant State Attorney Stephanie Mahaney said the plea will help the victimized
women move on with their lives, although court records suggest that they
already have.
Penny Milman, 36, of Winter Garden, who married Hare in 2006 at the Chapel
of Love in Eustis, filed for an annulment of their marriage in October.
Tammy Hare, the Colorado woman who triggered the investigation by police,
has filed a civil complaint in Orange County seeking child support for her
son.
Hare's first wife, Candy Winks, now has "grounds" to divorce Hare, who had
refused to sign papers that would have ended their marriage in New York,
a state that requires divorcing parties to show cause or fault.
Mahaney said Hare could have been sentenced to five years in prison if he
had rejected the state's offer and opted for a trial and lost. She said the
women approved of the state's offer, though they had wanted L.J. Hare to
serve the maximum possible time in prison.
Assistant Public Defender Jeremy Pykosz arranged Thursday's hearing to give
Hare a final chance to consider the state's offer, which the burly Romeo
repeatedly rejected.
Mahaney said she planned to withdraw the offer if prosecutors had to buy
plane tickets for their out-of-state witnesses.
Since Hare's arrest this summer, nine women contacted the Orlando Sentinel
and said they had been wooed or romanced by Hare on Internet sites for plus-size
singles.
Six said they met him in person, including a Central Florida woman who said
she might have accepted his sudden marriage proposal if he hadn't abruptly
stopped calling.
Hare's sentencing was delayed until Jan. 5 by Lake Circuit Judge Mark J.
Hill to allow the victims an opportunity to address the court, Mahaney said.
Hare, who worked in construction, often portrayed himself to his Internet
girlfriends as a federal marshal whose undercover work required him to disappear
suddenly and for long periods of time.
Hare kept up the ruse in letters from the Lake County Jail to Charlotte Gonzalez,
a friend of his wife, Tammy, in Colorado.
In the letters, which Gonzalez turned over to prosecutors, Hare tried to
explain his secret lives, saying, "I have had to fully start over six times
in 10 years now. Leaving everything and everyone behind."
The claims are vague, unsubstantiated bunk, Mahaney said.
Roderick Sangster, 58, was convicted in his absence at Warwick Crown Court after going on the run.
The jury heard he married Janet Pollard, with whom he lived in
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, while still married to Jill Sangster in
2004.
Sangster, who left both women heavily in debt, was sentenced after giving himself up earlier this week.
Originally from Perth, Scotland, he worked as a police officer for the
Metropolitan and Grampian forces before qualifying as a Church of
Scotland minister at St Andrews.
Internet dating
Sangster had been married for 25 years to Frances Tait, of Portlethen, Aberdeenshire, with whom he had had four children. He divorced her and married Mrs Sangster in Florida on 6 August 1996. He left her in 2002 and began divorce proceedings, but they were not completed.
Sangster then found a job at a hotel in Evesham, Worcestershire, and
started internet dating Ms Pollard, who was recovering from cancer.
He told her he had divorced his wife and moved in with her.
Mrs Sangster, to whom he is still legally married, was forced to
declare herself bankrupt after discovering her husband had run up a
debt of £30,000.
Ms Pollard was left with a bill for £55,000 after he
ran away last February on the day he claimed he was due to be paid in a
fictitious £107,500 book deal.
The women found out about one another after Mrs Sangster, of Perth,
contacted Ms Pollard when she was chasing up her husband's debts.
He was also convicted in his absence of forging Ms Pollard's signature to obtain a £10,000 loan from Northern Rock.
Judge Marten Coates told him: "You left your first wife, debts had risen to impossible levels.
"You left your second wife bankrupt and your third partner almost destitute.
"Your motives, I am sure, were dishonest from the start.
"Bigamy cases are rare. I think they are rare because the public has a
greater regard for the institution and obligations of marriage than you
do."
'Finally over'
Sangster was also sentenced to 12 months for forgery and two months for
failing to attend his trail, both to run concurrently.
The trial heard he targeted financially secure women, took their money and left them in debt before moving on.
Outside court, a statement was read out by Det Sgt Cawail Wong on behalf of the women.
He said: "We are pleased with the outcome at court and that the case is finally over.
"The ladies have had closure with regards to Roderick Sangster and are now looking forward to moving on with their lives."
Sangster's barrister Adam Western told the court his client wanted to apologise to the three women.
Mr Western said: "He asks and wants to tell the court through me that
he regrets the hurt and embarrassment he has caused these women, in
particular Janet."
James
Montgomery, 53, of Moody, TX, who was accused of marrying his girlfriend in
Las Vegas while still legally married to another woman, pleaded guilty
to a bigamy charge Monday in 19th District Court in Waco. Sentencing was set for Jan. 26, and Montgomery was indicted last month.
He
was accused of marrying his girlfriend Tiffani in the Little White
Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, without first divorcing his wife, Rebecca
Montgomery back in Texas. McLennan County Justice of the Peace
Kristi DeCluitt’s office said that according the arrest affidavit,
Rebecca Montgomery notified local law enforcement officers of the marriage.
Investigators obtained a marriage certificate for Tiffani and Montgomery from Clark County, Nev.
Montgomery
told News 10 that while he knew it was against the law to marry someone
while already married he didn't realize that marriage ceremonies
conducted in Las Vegas were "real" or legally binding.
He said that had he known the repercussions, he would not have gone through with the Las Vegas marriage on May 25, 2007.
Montgomery said he has been married to three different women since 1980.
A Los
Angeles woman who fled the country with her children after being
charged with bigamy and insurance fraud has been caught in Mexico.
Authorities
told the Los Angeles Times Monday that Damaris Amesquita was captured
by a bail bonds agent in Mexicali after she fled earlier this year.
Authorities say her two daughters, 9 and 11, and a 2-year-old boy she
had falsely claimed was her biological son were found unharmed.
Authorities
say Amesquita fraudulently collected death benefits of more than
$120,000 for her husband and falsely obtained health benefits for the
2-year-old by claiming him as her son. Prosecutors say her husband
still lives in Guatemala.
Amesquita is a former clerk with the Los Angeles County Probation Department.
When Henry Earl George filled out a marriage license in December 2006, he said he had no previous marriages. Perhaps a current one, he may have thought, didn't count.
George
was formally charged Wednesday with bigamy and false swearing, as
investigators said the 47-year-old Lawrenceville man was already
married when he exchanged nuptials with then 65-year-old Barbara
Carter-Cannon, a widow, on Dec. 14, 2006.
Though indictments
on the charges came down Wednesday, jail records show George was
originally booked into the Gwinnett County Detention Center on Aug. 4.
He is also being held without bond on a probation violation, records
show.
It is unclear where George's first wife lives or whether
the two were estranged. An exhibit to the indictment, however, lists
the same address as the residence for both George and Cannon.
Police
also said that just more than a year after unlawfully marrying his
second bride, George stole from her. He faces an additional charge of
theft by receiving stolen property, as investigators allege that on
Dec. 20, 2007, he "... did then and there unlawfully retain stolen
property ... a ring ... of Barbara Carter-Cannon, with a value greater
than $500, which he should have known was stolen."
According
to Georgia Code, bigamy is a felony punishable by one to 10 years in
prison. George faces up to five years in prison if convicted of false
swearing.
A Central Florida man pleaded no contest Monday to a felony count of bigamy, according to court documents.
George Dumstorf, 70, admitted to having two wives — he married the
first wife in 1960 — and was sentenced to 27 months in prison,
prosecutors said. About two weeks ago, he had been sentenced to 27
months in prison in Kentucky on federal bank fraud charges, and Bay
County Circuit Court Judge Richard Albritton ordered George to serve
that time concurrently with the Florida bigamy sentence.
"We were prepared to show that (Martha-Irene Weed-Dumstorf) used her
influence as an attorney to convince him that he could reasonably marry
her, but we were offered a sweetheart deal," said Jonathan Dingus, the
attorney for Dumstorf. Martha-Irene Weed-Dumstorf is one of Dumstorf's
wives.
The judge could have sentenced Dumstorf to serve up to five years
after the 27-month sentence, Dingus said. Bigamy is a third-degree
felony in Florida.
Dumstorf was released on a surety bond to face trial later this week in Tampa on a property dispute with Weed-Dumstorf.
Marriages
Weed-Dumstorf met Dumstorf while working as his attorney to dissolve
his second marriage, to Judy Howell. Weed-Dumstorf said she now is in
the process of annulling her four-year marriage to Dumstorf.
Dumstorf's marriage to Howell was dissolved in 2000, and in court
documents, Dumstorf said Weed-Dumstorf sent a letter to Stephanie
Dumstorf, his first wife whom he married in 1960, informing her of the
divorce. He also said his attorney told him the judge's decision in the
Howell marriage resolved his marriage to Stephanie Dumstorf.
Weed-Dumstorf, of Hernando County, said Monday she never knew about
the first wife. Weed-Dumstorf, who was at the Monday sentencing, said
in a phone interview she believes George Dumstorf might have been
married, or at least engaged, to additional women.
She said she and her parents, who live in Bay County, "have all been
embarrassed." She is working with Florida legislators to craft a
marriage registry, where people can search a database to confirm a
divorce, death or annulment. She said George Dumstorf told her that he
had divorced his first wife, Stephanie Dumstorf, and that she died,
which was untrue.
Martha Dumstorf said Stephanie Dumstorf did not divorce him until fall 2006, when she found out he was married to Weed-Dumstorf.
"George had all the accoutrements of life without working for them," she said.
Lawsuit
In his response to the state's lawsuit, Dumstorf argued that his
third wife, Weed-Dumstorf, married him despite knowing about the first
wife in order to get his assets.
Weed-Dumstorf said she is named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by
George Dumstorf's family for money he allegedly took improperly from
his mother's estate. She said she also is named as a defendant in the
Kentucky bank fraud case for which George Dumstorf was sentenced, and
the bank there is suing her to reclaim an $850,000 loan provided with
fraudulent collateral.
Dingus also said George Dumstorf and Weed-Dumstorf are fighting over
a $2.2 million horse farm north of Tampa, but he is not representing
George Dumstorf in any of those disputes.
Although George Dumstorf was assessed only $1,200 in fines Monday,
outcomes of the other lawsuits could cost him much more, Dingus added.
Because of the overlap of state and federal charges, as well as
pending cases, Dingus said George Dumstorf will turn himself in at a
location to be determined by U.S. marshals.
"It's hoped that he will turn himself in at the Coleman, Fla., facility. That's closest to his residence," Dingus said.
In 20-plus years as both a prosecution and defense attorney, Dingus said he has never seen a bigamy case heard in Bay County.
A
Logan, Utah woman charged with bigamy professed her innocence to The Herald
Journal on Thursday after waiving a preliminary hearing in Logan’s 1st
District Court.
Judge Clint S. Judkins set a pre-trial conference for Dec. 8.
The
Cache County Attorney’s Office has charged Greenlee with one count of
bigamy — a third-degree felony with a maximum penalty of five years in
prison — alleging she married Michael Ryan Goertemiller of Logan
without having divorced Dale Robert Greenlee of Logan.
“Mr.
Greenlee indicates there’s never been a divorce ... and that they’re
still currently married,” Deputy Cache County Attorney Tony Baird told
The Herald Journal in September. “That’s what he reports to law
enforcement.”
Greenlee has also been charged with making a
written false statement, a class-B misdemeanor, stemming from her
alleged inaccurate statement of not being previously married on her
most recent marriage application in Cache County — to Goertemiller.
She has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Records
in the Cache County Clerk’s Office indicate Greenlee has been married
four times in Cache County to the following individuals: Ronald Keith
Stagg Jr. of Wellsville in June 1994, Kevin Kay Kramer of Logan in
April 2003, Dale Robert Greenlee of Logan in October 2007, and Michael
Ryan Goertemiller in May 2008.
Greenlee’s only record of divorce
in Cache County came in October 2003, when a divorce decree relating to
her marriage with Kramer was signed by 1st District Judge Thomas
Willmore. It is possible that Greenlee could have gotten other divorces
outside of Cache County.
The Herald Journal has acquired the
four corresponding applications for marriage licenses. Applicants are
required to list the number of the marriage, and, if previously
married, to specify whether the last marriage ended by death, divorce
or annulment. On each application, Greenlee reports that it is her
first marriage. For the two most recent marriages in Cache County, she
also responds that she has never been previously married.
Deputy
Cache County Attorney Tony Baird, who is prosecuting the case, said he
has asked the Cache County Sheriff’s Office to continue investigating
Greenlee’s first marriage to Stagg.
“I spoke to the investigator
today; he’s still doing some follow up,” Baird said. “He has not been
able to speak to Mr. Stagg, has not located him. But depending upon how
the negotiations go, we may or may not file additional charges.”
Baird
said that negotiations in the case are ongoing. He added that Shannon
Demler, Greenlee’s court-appointed attorney, has expressed a desire to
plea bargain.
“We’ve talked about possible resolutions,” Baird said. “I don’t think we’ve really got an offer on the table.”
Demler
said Thursday the defense will present documentation in the future
showing Greenlee has been divorced from previous husbands.
“There’s
gonna be evidence presented that she was divorced from ex-husbands and
believed her status to be single at the time she got married (to
Goertemiller),” said Demler.
In addition, Demler said he’s in the process of tracking down documentation regarding the Greenlee marriage.
“There
is documentation out there that would indicate that she believed she
was divorced and single at the time she married Goertemiller,” Demler
said.
He continued, “There’s information that we have out there
that Rob Greenlee prepared divorce papers, had her sign them, indicated
to her that the divorce would be finalized and then he never took them
to the court. We’re trying to track down that information to give that
to the state to show that she believed that she was divorced at the
time she married Goertemiller.”
A Monroe, NC police officer charged with bigamy has been fired from his job. Officer
Darryl Howard was charged with the felony Monday after police said they
discovered he had two wives at once. Police Chief Debra Duncan told
reporters Monday afternoon the department was shocked by the charge
against the six year veteran.
"I think people are really in
shock, thinking, how could this happen," Duncan said. "You know as
police officers we just don’t things like that. We're held to a higher
standard and the officers here are dedicated, professional police
officers and they're pretty sad about it.
"The investigation into
Howard's accused double life began after his second wife filed a
complaint last week. Police said Howard had been married to his first
wife since 1986.Eyewitness News knocked on the door of the
apartment in Monroe where he lived with her but no one came to the
door.
Howard married his second wife last year, investigators said.
Channel 9 also knocked on the door of the home Howard shared with his
second wife in northeast Charlotte but got no answer. Marc Kirkpatrick lives in the apartment above them and saw Howard on a regular basis.
"Pretty much everyday, every other day," he said. "He'd come home. I'd see him."
Kirkpatrick agreed police are not above the law. He wasn't surprised to hear about the charge against his neighbor.
"They
are held to a higher standard but when it all boils down at the end of
the day they're humans just like everyone else," Kirkpatrick said.
Howard
is out on bond and his court date is December 4, 2008. Before he joined
the Monroe Police Department, Howard was a police officer at Johnson C.
Smith University in Charlotte.
Prosecutors say there was just
one problem when a Beaumont, TX woman traveled to Las Vegas to get married
- she was already married at the time. The Jefferson County grand jury has indicted Paulette Marie Durio, 32, on a charge of bigamy. Investigators say on July 30, Durio traveled to Las Vegas to get married.
According to a Probable Cause Affidavit obtained by KFDM News, once
the couple returned to Texas, the man discovered Durio's divorce hadn't
been finalized. The Affidavit states that temporary orders filed in the 317th
Judicial District in Jefferson County indicate Durio had filed for
divorce and temporary papers were signed on March 10, 2008. The papers
divided custody and possessions.
According to the Affidavit, the divorce wasn't finalized, and at the
time Durio got married in Las Vegas, she was still legally married in
Texas. The charge of bigamy is a 3rd Degree Felony. If convicted, Durio could punishment ranging from probation to 2 - 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. Assistant District Attorney Harry Lewis tells KFDM News this isn't
the first bigamy indictment he's handled, but they've been infrequent
during his year's with the Jefferson County D.A.'s Office.
The former assistant principal at Statesville, SC High School, now facing a bigamy charge, will next appear in court in November.
Lynn Antonio Jackson, who resigned from SHS in July, was charged with bigamy, a felony, in late July.
He was scheduled to appear in Iredell County District Court on Monday, and the case was continued until Nov. 17.
The case came to light when Jackson's second wife, Verleria
Sims-Jackson contacted Statesville police after learning Jackson was
still married to his first wife, Veronica, when he married her on April
15, 2007, police said.
Because the charge is a felony, it will be move to Superior Court if
an indictment is returned by the grand jury or if a district court
judge finds probable cause to bind the case over for trial in Superior
Court.
An
assistant pastor who was married to more than one woman will spend
another 30 days in jail to fulfill a sentence handed down Monday for
bigamy.
Spencer K.
Osborne, 36, said he figured his divorce from his first wife had been
finalized when he married a second woman in 2005. He pleaded guilty
earlier this month to bigamy, a low-level felony.
"I
just assumed," Osborne said. The divorce, however, wasn't final until
several months later. "I should have known better and checked. . . . I
really am sorry about this."
Charging
documents filed last month said Osborne later was married a third time
without divorcing the second wife, but prosecutors dismissed that
count. It's unclear whether either marriage is valid.
Osborne
was convicted in 1993 of molesting a 7-year-old Marion County girl, but
that case predated Indiana's sex offender registry.
He
said during Monday's hearing in Marion Superior Court that he still had
ties to New Covenant Free Will Baptist Church on the Eastside of
Indianapolis, but he planned to move to Kentucky upon his release to be
near family.
He
already has agreed to be extradited to Christian County, Ky., where he
faces accusations of failing to pay nearly $60,000 in child support for
two children.
In
the bigamy case, Judge Heather Welch gave Osborne 120 days in jail.
That leaves 30 days remaining after taking into account the time he's
already served and good-behavior credit. His plea agreement capped any
jail time at six months.
Welch denied Osborne's request to have the bigamy conviction entered as a misdemeanor.
Police arrested a Salisbury man Friday on a bigamy charge, according to records from the Rowan County, NC Magistrate's Office. Robert Allen Michael, 24, married a woman while
he was still married to someone else, the arrest warrant says.
Granite Quarry, NC Police arrested Michael. He was jailed under a $5,000 bond.
Vince Marinello's attorneys want a judge to toss out his second-degree
murder case on grounds that a member of the grand jury that indicted
him could also be a witness to his estranged wife's death.
Meanwhile,
prosecutors in New Orleans, LA want to raise allegations of bigamy by telling the trial
jury that Marinello was briefly married to two women at the same time
and lied about it, according to papers recently filed in court.
In what might be the last hearing before his Dec. 1 trial,
Marinello's attorneys and prosecutors are expected to make those and
other arguments today in eleventh-hour bids to shape the evidence a
jury will consider in deciding his fate.
Marinello, 71, faces life in prison if convicted of killing his
estranged wife, Liz Marinello. She died Sept. 1, 2006, after being shot
outside a Metairie Road office building the day before. Liz Marinello,
45, was seeking to annul their marriage when she was killed.
Defense attorneys Paul Fleming Jr. and Lee Faulkner Jr. want Judge
Conn Regan of the 24th Judicial District to toss out the charge, saying
a member of the grand jury that indicted the former broadcaster worked
at and was in the building where Liz Marinello was shot.
"The building was apparently put on lockdown, and the juror had
interaction with various witnesses," the defense attorneys wrote. That
means the grand jury was "improperly constituted," and prosecutors
"knew or should have known of this issue," they wrote.
They do not identify the grand juror. Also, the defense will argue that Assistant District Attorney David
Wolff spoke with Marinello numerous times before the killing about
allegations of domestic abuse in the marriage, making him a potential
trial witness. And yet Wolff presented the case to the grand jury.
That, the attorneys argue, was "improper" and grounds for the
indictment to be tossed.
Assistant District Attorneys Tommy Block and Vince Paciera,
meanwhile, want to tell the jury that Marinello was still married to
his second wife when he married Liz Marinello and that he
misrepresented the marriages and divorces by making false statements or
filing false public statements.
That evidence, the prosecutors said, "forms part of the motive" for Marinello to kill his wife. Block and Paciera also want Regan to stop the defense attorneys from
smearing Liz Marinello's character through evidence related to her past
marriage and child custody matters after that divorce. Those events,
the prosecutors argue, are "not relevant" to the murder case.
In addition, the prosecutors want Regan to exempt District Attorney
Paul Connick Jr., First Assistant District Attorney Steve Wimberly and
Chief of Trials Tim McElroy from an order that bars them from
discussing the case. The defense attorneys plan to call Connick, Wimberly and McElroy as
witnesses, meaning they will be sequestered. Yet, the prosecutors say,
they have a constitutional duty to oversee the prosecution.
"They have no firsthand knowledge or testimony to offer relative to
the charged offense in this case," Block and Paciera wrote. "Their
interactions with (Marinello) were minimal and inconsequential."
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.
A minister at an Indianapolis church has pleaded guilty to bigamy. Spencer K. Osborne, 36, admitted to Marion Superior Court Judge
Heather Welch on Thursday that he was still married to one woman when
he married another in 2005. His divorce from his first wife wasn’t
finalized until months after the second marriage took place.
Marion County, IN prosecutors also accused Osborne of marrying a third
woman last November while still married to his second wife, but he
pleaded guilty only to the count involving the 2005 marriage.
Osborne was an assistant pastor with New Covenant Free Will Baptist
Church on the city’s east side before his arrest Sept. 21. The church
could not be reached for comment Thursday because there was no number
in published listings.
Osborne was being held in Marion County Jail pending sentencing Oct.
20. Under an agreement with prosecutors, he would face a maximum of six
months in jail.
He also is wanted in Kentucky, where he is accused of failing to pay
nearly $60,000 in child support for two children. In 1993, Osborne was
convicted of molesting a 7-year-old Indianapolis girl.
A Youngstown attorney admits he was
legally married to two women at the same time, and his future as a
lawyer could be in jeopardy. The Ohio Supreme Court Board of
Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline is considering a complaint
against Attorney Dennis DiMartino.
In a letter responding to the
grievance, DiMartino admits that he married a woman before a divorce
was finalized with his first wife. DiMartino could be in violation of
professional rules of conduct.
James Byron Montgomery mistakenly believed the Las Vegas advertising campaign that boasts what happens there, stays there.
When he married Tiffiney Still in May 2007 without first divorcing his third wife, the act took the unemployed truck driver from Vegas’ Little White Wedding Chapel to the wrong side of the law.
A McLennan County, TX grand jury indicted the Moody resident Wednesday for bigamy, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Montgomery, who was arrested on the charge in March, remained free on bond Wednesday.
“I used to drive a truck, and me and my fiancée, Tiffiney, were in Vegas and we just, like, got a wild hair,” Montgomery said Wednesday. “We knew it was against the law. We just really didn’t feel married. We just, like, did it. I didn’t really think it was going to be a real marriage.”
Montgomery’s other wife, Rebecca, however, apparently considered his most recent nuptial a very real marriage and reported it to the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, according to a complaint filed against Montgomery by Deputy Brian Seymore.
The deputy arrested Montgomery after confirming that he was married to more than one woman at the same time.
Montgomery said he filed for divorce in May 2007, adding that he and Rebecca Montgomery, who reportedly is living now in Palestine, Texas, had been separated for about four months when he and Tiffiney got married.
A telephone listing for Rebecca Montgomery in Palestine was out of service Wednesday.
“I wish they would go after real criminals instead of people who fall in love,” Montgomery said. “I know what I did wasn’t right. But when me and Tiffiney met, I had never loved anybody in my entire life the way I love her. You can’t find love every day like this. She is a wonderful woman.”
Still, Montgomery, who has been unemployed for five months and says he can’t afford to pay for a lawyer, can’t explain why he didn’t wait until he was divorced.
“I wouldn’t change nothing,” he said.
This year we've been following the case of a man with a long rap sheet - this time charged with bigamy.
He
was in Bonneville County Court on Friday, where he was expected to
change his plea to a lesser charge of filing a false report. Instead,
Judge Jon Shindurling decided to dismiss the case altogether.
David
Thieme was set to plead guilty to filing a false report, instead of the
charge of bigamy, after prosecutors said he was married to two women at
the same time.
Judge Shindurling asked Thieme if he was sure
he wanted to plead guilty. Thieme said he was, but explained his side
of the story - that when he got his second marriage license, he didn't
know his first marriage license with his former partner was still
valid; in fact, he said he had called the courthouse and was told there
was no record of his first marriage.
After further
discussion, the judge said he was concerned about the viability of the
charge and a lack of what he called "factual basis." That's when he
dismissed this case altogether - good news for Thieme, except that with
his long rap sheet that includes sexual offenses and battery and other
crimes, he is going to state prison for three to 15 years.
A South Florida woman who was the real 'marrying kind' pleaded guilty Thursday to bigamy.
According
to the State Attorney's Office, Eunice Lopez was just one of five
members of her family that married individuals for money so they could
receive permanent U.S. residency status.
On Thursday Lopez and
her boyfriend, Rodneys Gonzalez, were each sentenced to 2 years of
probation during which they will have to dissolve their illegal
marriages. They will also have to perform 50 hours of community
service, make a $500 contribution to a local charity and pay all of the
costs associated with the investigations in their cases.
Investigators
found that Lopez had married 10 times and Gonzales 9 times without
divorcing any of their spouses. For each marriage, Lopez and Gonzales
reportedly received between five and fifteen thousand dollars.
"These
false marriages are nothing more than criminal acts undertaken by
greedy individuals," commented State Attorney Katherine Fernandez
Rundle. "These illegal acts have a potential of working to undermine
the security of our country while affecting all foreign nationals who
are legally applying for their permanent U.S. residencies."
Jesus
Rodriguez and Eurice Rodriguez, Eunice Lopez uncle and mother who are
accused of being illegally married 5 and 3 times respectively are
scheduled to go to trial on September 29th.
An arrest warrant remains active for Eunice Lopez's aunt, Loida Rodriguez, who faces 12 counts of bigamy.
What began with a 2006 bigamy charge has
ended with multiple felony convictions and a 50-year prison sentence
for Timothy Lee Rankin, who twice tried to kill his ex-wife.
The 49-year-old Staunton, VA man was sentenced to 25 years in prison
this morning in Augusta County Circuit Court for trying to hire a hit
man, while in jail, to kill Sandra Maybush. That sentence is in
addition to a 25-year sentence in 2007 for attempting to murder Maybush
and her family by setting fire to their home. Rankin is also a
convicted bigamist.
Maybush’s sister, Kathy Click, testified Thursday that Rankin’s
attempt to hire a hit man has changed the lives of family members.
“We have all been very afraid,” she said. “Every step we take is
very guarded. Even though we know Mr. Rankin is locked up, we don’t
feel secure.”
Rankin told Judge Victor V. Ludwig that he was “messed up on drugs” when he solicited his ex-wife’s murder.
“Since I’ve been off the medication I can think much better,” Rankin said.
Assistant county prosecutor Thomas Knoll told the judge Rankin has no regard for life.
“This man should never see the light of day,” he said.
After Maybush reported Rankin’s bigamy in August, 2006, he attempted
to murder her and her 16-year-old daughter and 60-year-old disabled
brother as they slept in their Stuarts Draft mobile home in November of
that year. He set fire to insulation ripped from under the home.
Maybush and the others escaped unharmed.
While serving a 25-year sentence for that attempted murder and
arson, Rankin was charged with solicitation to murder in October, 2007,
and was found guilty in June before the sentencing today.
Spencer K. Osborne spent more than a year preaching at an Eastside, IN church while police say he was breaking marriage laws. Osborne,
36, the assistant pastor at New Covenant Free Will Baptist Church,
remained in Marion County Jail on Monday on allegations of bigamy and
failing to pay nearly $60,000 in child support for two children in
Kentucky.
Osborne's
third wife, Hope Tucker Osborne, walked briskly out of a courtroom
after her husband appeared for an initial hearing Monday. She said she
was shocked to learn of Osborne's other marriages and a child molesting
conviction.
Osborne was convicted in 1993 of molesting a
7-year-old Marion County girl. He served a four-year sentence in an
Indiana prison for child molesting, records show. The offense predated
the sex offender registry.
Lt. Dave Young, commander of an
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department special investigations
unit, said the bigamy case began several months ago with an anonymous
tip that Osborne was married to two women. The investigation
took on new urgency, Young said, after police learned of the prior sex
offense and an allegation that he gave his 7-year-old victim a sexually
transmitted disease.
"Our primary goal became getting him into
the sex offender registration program," Young said. "He's teaching
Sunday school, taking care of these kids, and that just wasn't
acceptable." Police now want to talk to the children who attended the church and other children who lived with the women he dated or married.
"The investigation isn't closed," Young said. "We are now concerned about the kids who were left in Spencer Osborne's care." Tucker Osborne said she was glad Osborne was in jail because she has several grandchildren; she declined to comment further.
According
to court records, when Osborne married Tucker Osborne on Nov. 11, he
already was married to Gidget Harris. When he married Harris on Feb.
12, 2005, he already was married to Tonya Washington. Osborne married Washington on Sept. 18, 1999. Washington divorced him June 15, 2005.
Harris declined to comment. Washington could not be reached for comment. Bigamy is a Class D felony carrying a penalty of up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine upon conviction.
Osborne
was arrested Sunday afternoon at a home in the 400 block of State
Avenue, where police and witnesses said he had been living with another
woman and her children. Osborne was being held without bond
Monday on the bigamy cases and a warrant out of Christian County, Ky.,
where officials say he owes $59,875 to Nancy Torian, the mother of his
two children. Assistant Christian County Attorney John Lindsey Adams
said his office filed the neglect warrant in January and wants Osborne
extradited.
Osborne's public defender, Rick Adams, declined to
comment because he had just taken the case. In court Monday, Judge
Heather Welch declined to set a lower bond for Osborne and scheduled an
extradition hearing for today.
New Covenant Free Will Baptist
Church, 2422 N. Sherman Drive, has been operating for about three
years, said former member Cathy Jarrett, 46.
Jarrett, the aunt
of Osborne's third wife, said she and her husband, Kevin, left the
congregation about a year ago, after she learned about Osborne's past. "It's
just like anything else in the world; there are a lot of people who are
too trusting," Jarrett said. "I tried to tell my niece not to marry
him, but she was in love."
Jarrett said she brought the information to church leaders, but no one believed her. "I'm glad it came out so everybody sees the liar that Spencer Osborne is," Jarrett said.
A
sign on the wall of the one-story white church identified James M.
Reeves as its founder and head pastor and Osborne as the assistant
pastor. Reeves could not be reached for comment. The church's phone was
disconnected Monday.
Two years ago, a police report shows, the
leaders of another church fired Osborne after they suspected he was
stealing from the congregation.
"He always had a handful of cash
on him, and none of the bills around the church were getting paid,"
said Donald D. Fuqua, a deacon at Loving Missionary Baptist Church, 802
W. Roache St. "A group of us got together and had him voted out."
Osborne
served as pastor of Loving Missionary for about six months in 2006.
Fuqua said church leaders decided not to pursue criminal charges at the
time, although they did file a police report claiming Osborne left with
a church computer, printer, projector and digital camera.
"(Osborne's arrest) is the best news I've heard in a long time," Fuqua said.
A man facing fraud and bigamy charges for allegedly adopting a new
identity to avoid making child support payments has been granted bail.
Provincial court Judge Allan Fradsham ordered the release of Dibua Mokendi Dieudonne Kabengele, 54, on Wednesday on $750 cash.
Crown
prosecutor Ryan Claxton did not oppose the conditions suggested by duty
counsel Bob Haslam, who was representing Kabengele at the hearing.
Police
records indicate the accused was still married to a woman in Montreal
when he wed again last February in Calgary. However, it is to another
woman whom Kabengele owes child support payments.
Police have said he fathered children in Eastern Canada with a girlfriend before the 2003 Montreal marriage.
Kabengele,
a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who has been living in
Canada for nearly two decades, is also accused of forging documents to
get a job under a different man's name.
Police say he used the fake ID to apply for a warehouse job, hoping to avoid making child support payments.
Kabengele is accused of marrying a Calgary woman on Feb. 16 while still legally married to the woman in Montreal. He has lived in Calgary for about two years.
As
part of his bail, Kabengele must not leave the city without written
permission, must surrender his passport to the court, reside at an
approved address and not have any contact with the Calgary woman or
attend her home.
Fradsham adjourned the case until Oct. 8 to allow Kabengele time to hire a lawyer.
An Edmonton woman called police after learning her husband of 10
years was allegedly already married to someone else, Sun Media has
learned.
And the "devastated" woman also accused her spouse of leaving unregistered guns wrapped in a blanket in a closet in her home.
Gordon Howard Krell, 49, appeared in provincial court Tuesday
on one count of bigamy and four weapons charges and was remanded in
custody until his next appearance because he hadn't been able to post
his $200 bail.
Last night, Sheila Westwong said she was "absolutely, totally
devastated" when she learned her husband of ten years apparently
was already married to another woman.
"It shattered my whole world," said Westwong, 45. "For 10 years I've been living a lie," she said.
Westwong also said she is thankful Krell is behind bars because she has been living in fear of running into him.
Westwong said she and Krell were married in a legal ceremony
near Wabamun on July 3, 1999. On March 14, 2007, she returned home to
find him gone and his wedding ring left on a dresser.
She ended up calling his sister and discovering he was
allegedly already married to a woman named Lucie Brunet, whom Krell had
married in 1990. And a couple of days later, she met Brunet, whom
ironically is now her friend.
Westwong said she has now joined a support group for victims of bigamists and is trying to get help.
One problem is she has since met another man she calls her
"best friend" and is engaged to be married, but learned that, despite
being the victim, she has to pay a fee to get an annulment before she
can wed again.
City police spokesman Patrycia Thenu confirmed the unusual and rare incident was reported by Westwong in March 2007.
"Krell was already married and he decided to get married again without getting a divorce," said Thenu.
The alleged bigamist could not be found when police laid the
charges in October 2007 so an arrest warrant was issued for him and he
was picked up on Sept. 21.
At that time of his appearance before a justice of the peace,
when he had bail of $200 cash set, Krell was listed as residing in a
basement suite in northwest Edmonton.
According to court documents, the allegedly unlicensed and
improperly stored weapons were a Ranger bolt- action rifle and a Marlin
bolt- action rifle.
Clinton Subcliff and Jodi Albers exchanged wedding vows in Clinton on Feb. 29, Leap Day. But
prosecutors say before they leapt, they should have looked a little
closer at whether Subcliff’s divorce from Devan Subcliff had been
finalized.
Clinton Subcliff, 28, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one
count of bigamy, a serious misdemeanor, and an unrelated count of
operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. According to a
police affidavit, Devan Subcliff called the Clinton Police Department
on March 4 and said her current husband had married Albers on Feb. 29,
even though a hearing in their divorce proceeding had been scheduled
for March 7.
Clinton Subcliff told police in an interview that
he had married Albers on Feb. 29 and that he believed his divorce was
finalized, although he could not produce a copy of the divorce decree.
Assistant
Scott County Attorney Bob Weinberg, who was assigned to handle the case
because someone connected to the case has a close relative who works in
the Clinton County Courthouse, said Subcliff would have had to prove he
believed his divorce was final to defend himself against the charge.
Weinberg
said bigamy cases are extremely rare in Iowa. According to the Iowa
Department of Public Safety, there were 10 bigamy convictions in Iowa
from 1999 to 2007.
Subcliff received a deferred judgment on both
charges and will be sentenced to probation, Weinberg said. He also
could face a civil penalty.
Subcliff’s divorce has since become final, and his marriage to Albers is legal, according to Iowa statute, Weinberg said.
Subcliff could not be reached for comment, and his attorney, Gary Rolfes, declined to comment.
In another case, husband Charles W. Kirby, 25, of La Vergne,TN, was charged with bigamy.La Vergne, TN Detective Lt. Stace Thompson reported Kirby married another woman while still married.
The Cache County Attorney’s Office has charged a Logan woman with
bigamy, a case that several in the local law enforcement community say
they have never seen in the area.
Nichole Christine Greenlee,
32, made an initial appearance in Logan’s 1st District Court on Monday.
A preliminary hearing was set for Nov. 13. Greenlee was released on her
own recognizance earlier this month.
“Evidently, this lady has
been married five times and is divorced once that we can find out,”
said Cache County Sheriff’s Capt. Kim Cheshire, who noted that in 26
years with the Sheriff’s Office he has never before dealt with a bigamy
case.
Greenlee is currently being charged with one count of bigamy,
corresponding to her two most recent marriages in Cache County, while
prior marriages are still under investigation. She is being charged
under the name taken from her third husband in the county.
In
addition to the bigamy count” a third-degree felony with a maximum
penalty of five years in prison, Greenlee is being charged by the
Attorney’s Office with making a written false statement.
The
Herald Journal has obtained four marriage licenses for Greenlee in
Cache County, each filled out with her maiden name of Fasick.
In
addition, The Herald Journal has acquired the four corresponding
applications for marriage licenses. Applicants are required to list the
number of the marriage, and, if previously married, to specify whether
the last marriage ended by death, divorce or annulment. On each
application, Greenlee reports that it is her “first” marriage. For the
two most recent marriages in Cache County, she also responds that she
has “never” been previously married.
Deputy Cache County
Attorney Tony Baird, who is prosecuting the case, noted that the charge
of written false statement, a class-B misdemeanor, stems from
Greenlee’s alleged inaccurate statements of not being previously
married on her most recent marriage application in Cache County to
Michael Ryan Goertemiller of Logan.
Records in the Cache County
Clerk’s Office indicate Greenlee has been married four times in Cache
County to the following individuals: Ronald Keith Stagg Jr. of
Wellsville in June 1994, Kevin Kay Kramer of Logan in April 2003, Dale
Robert Greenlee of Logan in October 2007, and Michael Ryan Goertemiller
in May 2008.
“According to the evidence that we have ... there
are three prior marriages (in Cache County), and at least the one to
Mr. Greenlee is still active, according to Mr. Greenlee,” Baird said
Wednesday. “That would be the basis of the written false statement.”
Nichole
Greenlee’s attempt to marry Goertemiller while being married to Dale
Robert Greenlee, known as Rob, prompted the bigamy charge, according to
Baird.
“Mr. Greenlee indicates there’s never been a divorce ...
and that they’re still currently married,” Baird said. “That’s what he
reports to law enforcement.”
Baird noted that in the 11 years he has practiced law in Cache County, he doesn’t recall the office ever filing a bigamy case.
“It’s fairly unusual,” Baird said.
The Cache County Attorney’s Office could file more charges in the case, he added.
“Say,
for example, that she never was divorced from Mr. Stagg, then the other
two subsequent marriages would also be problematic, and we may pursue
them,” Baird said.
Greenlee’s only record of divorce in Cache
County came in October 2003, when a divorce decree relating to her
marriage with Kramer was signed by 1st District Judge Thomas Willmore.
It is possible that Greenlee could have gotten other divorces outside
of Cache County.
Cheshire said the Sheriff’s Office is in the process of investigating a possible fifth marriage out of state.
“Evidently,
there is another one, and it’s out of state,” Cheshire said. “That’s
still part of the investigation, seeing if that’s true or not.”
The
Herald Journal interviewed Goertemiller, who is currently serving three
consecutive one-year sentences for drug charges in the Cache County
Jail, while on work release Tuesday afternoon.
Goertemiller, 33,
married Greenlee on May 3 of this year, two days before he began
serving his sentence. He is up for a review on Sept. 15.
“She’s
the one who really pushed the issue of marriage,” Goertemiller said.
“When we got together, she knew what was going on in my life and stuff
and was willing to accept things.”
Goertemiller said that
Nichole Greenlee, who married Rob Greenlee in October 2007, moved into
his place in Logan in mid-November of 2007. The two dated for about six
months before getting married in May, according to Goertemiller, who
said he has not been previously married.
He contends that Greenlee told him in January 2008 that she had gotten a divorce from Rob Greenlee.
“She
told me in January that Rob filed for divorce, and she went down and
signed the papers,” Goertemiller said. “I totally believed her at the
time because ... I was right there when she told Rob, ‘You know, I want
to be with Mike; I’m gonna be with Mike.’”
Goertemiller said he
was not aware of Greenlee’s marriage to Kramer, but noted he had some
knowledge of the marriage to Stagg. He added that he confronted
Greenlee last month about not having seen any divorce papers.
“That’s
about when all the real games started,” he said. “She wouldn’t be home
in the mornings; she’d be off somewhere all night.”
The Herald Journal placed numerous calls to Nichole Greenlee and Rob Greenlee on Tuesday and Wednesday, which were not returned.
But
Rob Greenlee’s mother, KayLene Draper, confirmed to The Herald Journal
on Wednesday that Nichole Greenlee is currently living with her son in
Logan.
Draper added that neither wanted to comment for this story.
In
addition, The Herald Journal called the Logan office of Shannon Demler
who, as of Monday, was Greenlee’s court-appointed attorney but Demler
did not immediately return the call Wednesday.
Goertemiller said he’s disappointed.
“I
feel used, abused, taken advantage of,” he said. “If I didn’t care for
the lady at all ... I would have never married her in the first place.”
A Princeton has been accused of being married to two women at the same time, according to the Wayne County, NC Sheriff's Office.
Jerry Lee Miller, 50, of 683 Oakland Church Road, faces one charge of bigamy.
Acting
off a tip, the sheriff's office opened an investigation in May.
Deputies determined that Miller had been married, gotten separated and
then re-married without obtaining a divorce.
Miller was being held in the Wayne County Jail under a $2,500 unsecured bond Friday morning.
Police charged a 34-year-old Hospice worker of Wake County employee today with bigamy, court records show.
Police have accused Stacey Lynn Lambert of 1134 Shadyside Drive with feloniously marrying Brent Sherwood Lambert on July 19.
Investigators
say the midsummer marriage was illegal because she was still married to
another man, Randal Joe Nearce, according to an arrest warrant filed
today at the Wake County Magistrate's Office.
Lambert was released from custody at the Wake County jail after signing a written promise to appear in court, records show.
A Waynesboro, VA man who married three times after getting hitched in
the early 1990s to a woman he never divorced pleaded guilty Monday to
three felony charges of bigamy.
James A. Moyer, 63, entered the pleas in Augusta County, VA Circuit Court.
The
Augusta County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation in April
after Moyer’s wife from the early 1990s filed for Social Security
benefits and discovered she was still legally married to him.
Moyer remarried in 2000, 2003 and 2005. He is currently separated, the sheriff’s office said.
After
entering the guilty pleas Monday, Moyer was ordered jailed on a $10,000
bond while awaiting a presentence report. He has since bonded out of
Middle River Regional Jail.
Moyer, who faces the possibility of 30 years in prison, will be sentenced December 18.
Police say a Fairmont, WV woman who was already married illegally wed
another man and used his identity to obtain a credit card and money. Thirty-year-old Glenna Lynn Wooten is charged with bigamy and forgery of a public record.
According to the criminal complaint, Wooten allegedly presented an
altered birth certificate identifying herself as Lynn Davis to obtain a
marriage license at the Marion County Courthouse in March.
The complaint says Wooten lived with the man who thought he was her
husband long enough to use his identity to obtain a credit card and
forge his name to six checks. She then went back to her husband of
three years.
Wooten was arrested Tuesday and is free on bond. When reached for comment Friday, she hung up the phone.
They have a date. He was supposed to pick her up and take her to his
townhouse in Ramsey where he said she could stay to defray living costs
as her fledgling furniture importing business goes under. Then they'll
go for pizza.
His idea is to save her from financial hardship by
finding her a job in the Sonoma Wine company. He claims to be an heir
to the company. This has been the plan since their first date in July
2007 after meeting on singlesnet.com.
"I looked right into his eyes and saw a man that truly cared," she said in an e-mail.
But
Ed Walsh is late. He already called her once at her Marlboro home to
reschedule from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Now, it seems, he is standing her up.
The
truth: Walsh, or Edward J. Devine, has been at the Ocean County
Superior Courthouse in Toms River waiting since 9 a.m. to be sentenced
to five years in state prison for bouncing checks and deceiving several
nonprofit and educational institutions.
About the time Helaine agrees to wait a couple of more hours, Devine is led away in handcuffs to begin his sentence.
In
December 1984, Devine, then a trucker, was convicted of stealing from
his employer. By May 2007, he was a self-described trucking mogul who
had built a reputation out of promises to share his wealth with people
in need.
But the promises were empty. The half-dozen
organizations expecting some $4 million in donations wasted time and
money. And Devine, not the tycoon he claimed to be, was convicted on
three counts of theft by deception and two counts of passing bad checks.
Devine's
antics over two decades were fine-tuned from a financially troubled
everyman willing to bilk for personal profit to a pseudo-philanthropist
set on painting a public image of Rockefelleresque wealth.
They
also have earned the 51-year-old a catalog of enemies. Nonprofits have
scorned him. Creditors have sued him. Prosecutors have pursued him.
And
then there were the women in his life. The three who were once wed to
Devine, a Bergenfield native, describe relationships that began with
romance and ended with drained bank accounts and suspicions of bigamy.
But at least one, the 46-year-old Helaine, whose last name is being
withheld to protect her identity, still professes her affection to the
man she called "Pumpkin."
Together, these women provide perhaps the steadiest account of the evolution of Devine's motives.
As
Carole Ceralli, his first wife, explained: "At first he lied to avoid
punishment, then he lied to fit into other people's lives."
Teacher left in debt
Donna Devine sat at her kitchen table one sunny afternoon last spring in a sweatshirt and sweatpants. The
38-year-old teacher should have been with her students at a Berkeley
elementary school, but that day her nerves were shot, she said.
It
had been three months since her husband was exposed as a bogus donor
who had no intention of paying millions of dollars that he had promised
to several charities and fundraisers. "What? That's what I said to everyone for that first month of everything happening: "What?' " she said.
In
time, her shock turned sour. Her accusations include Devine leaving her
and her mother with more than $400,000 in debt from equity loans on her
house. A recent statement shows $305,392 remaining to be paid on
the mortgage of the two-story home in Bayville, about as much as it was
worth when purchased in 2004.
"Emotionally, he really tore us
apart. Financially, I'm in bad shape," said Donna's mother, Lynn Hogan,
59, whose name the house is in. Donna also recently learned
Devine could still be married to his first wife, Carol Ceralli. If so,
she could be the second wife he committed bigamy with while married to
Ceralli.
Donna met Devine in November 2001 after divorcing her
first husband. One of his sisters set the couple up by inviting Donna
to her house for pizza. That led to a second date at a TGI Friday's in
Eatontown. "He seemed very intelligent, very charming," Donna said.
They
were married in September 2002 at the Brielle River House. Together
they formed the trucking company East Coast Carrier. At one point,
Hogan said, she gave her daughter's husband a check for $50,000 to buy
a new company truck. He paid her $5,000 as a down payment. She never
saw the rest.
In 2005, Donna went back to teaching full-time,
leaving Devine in charge of their company, which at that point was down
to two haulers. It was about that time his tales of riches began
to circulate. Devine would claim to operate a massive trucking
enterprise stretching as far as Texas and worth millions. He claimed to
own five houses, including one in Teterboro next to former New York
Giants cornerback Jason Sehorn and another in Nantucket, Mass., that he
reached by private jet. Eventually, as his stories of inflated fortune
began to unravel, so did his marriage.
"Things he was saying weren't making sense to me anymore," Donna said. "He used to have a logical explanation for everything."
On
Feb. 8, 2007, she was granted a restraining order, which cited "good
cause to believe that plaintiff's life, health and well-being have been
and are endangered by defendant's act(s) of violence." Devine
was arrested twice for violating the order. One occurred after he hired
a private detective Feb. 17 to follow his wife, writing on the retainer
that he had no restraining order against him.
Wife No. 2
Devine's second wife did see justice, however. The same
Bergen County judge who dropped charges on Devine for bilking the
Tomorrows Children's Fund sentenced him to four years probation in 1999
for exhausting the bank account of Deborah Weiss.
Weiss, a
wealthy socialite from Englewood, and Devine were married in 1994
overlooking the Hudson River. Though they met at a car dealership in
Westwood where Devine was a mechanic and she was a customer, he told
her he was actually heir to a department store fortune and only worked
on cars as a hobby, said Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Ike Gavzy,
who tried the case.
Soon the spending began: $77,000 on the
wedding, $27,000 on diamond earrings, $10,000 on a honeymoon and $7,000
on a Jet Ski, according to newspaper reports.
Lynn Hoffman,
director of the Children's Fund, who knew Weiss, said the woman would
stop by the hospital all the time to donate items such as clothing or a
piano, but believes Weiss was in the dark when it came to her husband's
outlandish pledges.
"He is clever, tells a good story and
doesn't ask you to put money in, so your natural inclination is, if
this guy is out to help people, he's a good guy," said attorney Harvey
York, who was never paid his legal fees.
Louis Schlesinger, a
professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, compared such behavior to the condition pseudologia
fantastica, or a tendency toward grandiose lying; the reward being not
monetary but the elation felt from impressing other people.
"It's
not uncommon to want to present yourself in this way to overcompensate
for some inadequacies," he said. "You approach people as this huge
force in the world when it can't be further from the truth."
By the time Devine was arrested in Utah in 1996, he had left Weiss with a second mortgage on her house and bounced checks. "Her life was ruined after that. He took her whole inheritance," Hoffman said. After 25 months of marriage, Weiss learned Devine had never divorced his first wife.
He leaves first wife
Carol Ceralli married Devine following an introduction by his
sister. After the wedding in Paterson in 1983, they eventually moved to
Mahwah, where Ceralli had met Devine while working with his sister at
Minolta. There, Devine commuted to his job as a mechanic for a car
dealership in Westwood.
Devine kept a relatively low profile
during this time. He appeared not to embellish his financial status or
live a way he couldn't afford. Ceralli described him as an "honest"
mechanic, smart and a "phenomenal reader" whom all the neighborhood
children, including her son Billy, loved. He did bounce checks, lie
about paying the bills and use Ceralli's bank account too freely.
"When I met him, I had five-star gold credit. After our first year, I was in bankruptcy," Ceralli said. She had to sell her car in 1996 to post his $8,000 bail. He also was convicted of mail fraud in 1984.
But
Devine's motives then were to evade the spotlight, not seek it, Ceralli
said. He even went to her psychologist for a short time to to and curb
his habits. But in 1994, he told Ceralli he didn't want to be married anymore and left.
"All
of a sudden, he wanted to be a playboy," said Ceralli, now 59 and
living in Ramsey. "He saw a better way of living with Deborah. He
figured he'd live the high life off her money."
Eight years later, he filed for bankruptcy. Ceralli said she came to one conclusion: Devine's upbringing was partly to blame.
Father was a cop
Raised in Bergenfield with three brothers and a sister,
Devine learned at a young age to avoid getting into trouble at all
costs, according to Ceralli. His father was an Irish police officer who
worked in Manhattan, she said.
"I can see where he went wrong because his father was very "you walk a straight line or else you're not my son,' " Ceralli said.
Records
show Devine's past steadily has caught up with him. Court documents
reveal at least four civil suits brought against him from 1994 to 2001
by various creditors. According to a past-due notice from Essex County
Probation, as of March 25, 2007, he was still on probation for an
unknown violation in 2004.
"This inflating of the ego — one
thing about that is it's like a balloon: as it expands the walls get
thin, so one little pin prick can deflate the whole thing," said
Schlesinger, who does not know Devine.
Devine did not responded
to several requests for comment before his sentencing. Once last year
he answered a reporter's call to his cell phone but said he could not
talk without a lawyer present.
On May 7, 2007, Devine began
working as a driver for Forte Builders in Berkeley. Ocean County
prosecutors have charged Devine with bouncing a $10,000 check while
trying to buy a million-dollar home in Lacey. They believe he was
house-hunting with a woman. A bounced $3,850 check from Susan Haskell
of Forked River was made out to Devine on April 25, 2007. On the bottom
left line of the check was written, "House."
Haskell, when reached by phone, declined to comment.
At
his trial, Devine said he was working for the international shipping
company Yellow Transportation — a job that authorities can't confirm.
Will prison help him?
Devine was transferred from Ocean County Jail in Toms River
to state prison in Trenton on Wednesday. He likely will get out within
a year. When he does, prosecutors hold little hope for a changed man.
"I
don't know if any prison sentence, even one for a lifetime, is going to
get through to him," Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Martin Anton
said. "The best thing is that now at least people are aware."
The
morning after Devine stood up Helaine, she saw his photo in the
newspaper along with his real last name and the list of crimes he'd
committed. When she realized there was no Devine wine fortune or
townhouse in Ramsey, she called a reporter in his defense.
Since then, Helaine has visited Devine, and sent him letters in jail.
"I
did tell him that I loved him and wished he would be totally honest
with me now that he was caught," she said in an e-mail. ". . . (I)
explained that I would only be there for him unconditionally if he was
completely honest going forward."
Michael Taylor, 31, pleaded no contest to one count of bigamy Friday in Rockingham NC Superior Court. Judge Catherine Eagles sentenced Taylor to two years of
supervised probation and ordered him to perform 50 hours of community
service for bigamy, a Class I felony in NC.
Taylor had no criminal history.
The bigamy charge resulted from an investigation that showed Taylor
married Samantha Michelle Bailey on Sept. 7, 2007, while he was married
to Kimberly Isley. Taylor and Isley were married Aug. 25, 2006, and
Isley’s divorce from Taylor was granted in February 2008.
The
investigation showed Taylor married Samantha Bailey’s sister, Sabrina,
in January 2008, but no charges resulted from Taylor’s marriage to her.
“We just decided to pursue one charge,” Berger said.
The investigation began in March 2008, when sheriff’s deputies
received a report that Taylor, a Basic Law Enforcement Training student
at the time, was a suspected bigamist.
Chelan County, WA is prosecuting a woman for marrying a man before she was divorced from a different man.
Lorena Juarez, 32, of East Wenatchee, faces a
maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted on a
charge of bigamy — having more than one spouse.
Juarez married a 54-year-old man in November 2007.
He died in January 2008. Following his death, Juarez withdrew about
$17,000 from a checking account the two shared and a memorial fund
account on which she was the signer, according to an East Wenatchee
police investigation.
The man's children and ex-wife approached police,
claiming Juarez was not entitled to the money. Because Juarez was still
married to another man, the deceased man's family claimed her marriage
to him was invalid and her claim to the assets void. Juarez' divorce
from her previous husband was finalized in February.
Douglas County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Biggar said
his office declined charging Juarez with fraud and forgery, as
recommended by East Wenatchee police, because she acted within the
normal limits of a marriage. Biggar said the claim is a civil one.
Douglas County forwarded the bigamy matter to Chelan County, where Juarez' marriages took place, Biggar said.
A Montpelier man who allegedly took a second wife while still married
to the first pleaded not guilty this week to a felony charge of bigamy
in Vermont District Court in Barre.
Elroy Lee Litchfield, a
small, 57-year-old man with a ponytail and round, wire-frame glasses,
walked into the courtroom in shackles to enter his plea.
Litchfield
was on furlough when he allegedly committed the crime, and he's now
being held at the St. Johnsbury Correctional Center. He has a lengthy
criminal record that includes convictions of grand larceny, firearms
charges, buying, receiving, possessing, selling or concealing stolen
property, and breaking and entering, among others.
Barre City
Police Officer Russell Slora began an investigation into the alleged
bigamy after receiving a complaint in July from Litchfield's first
wife, Janet Litchfield.
Slora looked up marriage records and
said he spoke with justice of the peace John H. Fitzhugh who married
Litchfield to his second wife, Debra Hill.
Fitzhugh recalled
performing the ceremony at the couple's residence in Montpelier, adding
that in his opinion, Litchfield was of sound mind and was not
intoxicated during the ceremony, Slora wrote in his affidavit.
Slora
and Litchfield then spoke over the phone, and Litchfield admitted to
recently marrying Hill. Litchfield also said he had contacted the
Public Defender's Office in St. Johnsbury and they "did up the
paperwork and okayed the marriage," the affidavit says. But when Slora
spoke with the Public Defender's Office, they said they had no recent
contact with Litchfield, Slora wrote. Hill, 45, said she had no clue
that Litchfield was still married when she said "I do," and she found
out about it from a newspaper article.
"Someone came up to me
and said, 'there's an article about you in there.' I was like 'no.' But
I went out and bought a newspaper and got the shock of my life," she
said.
She said she and Litchfield met last February, adding that the whole ordeal has been inconvenient.
Hill said she knows that marriages contracted while either party has a living spouse are considered void under Vermont law.
But,
she said, she contacted the family court, which said she needs to get a
divorce. She dropped a letter off at the court yesterday, saying the
marriage is null and void. Hill said she wants some written
confirmation that the marriage was never official.
"As if I haven't gone through enough," she said.
Elroy
and Janet Litchfield have been separated since 2003, Janet said. Though
their relationship may not be permanent, it seems one aspect of their
time together is: According to court records, Elroy Lee Litchfield has
a tattoo on his left arm that says "Lee & Janet."
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