A Montgomery County Judge Rewards A Bigamist?
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42-year-old Charity Lenee Parchem is expected to plead guilty late next month in Montgomery County to a charge of bigamy. She was indicted for already having at least one husband when she married Mark Athans from Willis, maybe even two.
Athans has still been ordered to pay her $73,000 to support her and faces jail this week if he doesn’t pay the woman who’s accused of lying to him.
Sound crazy?
Montgomery County Judge Patrice McDonald chose to ignore the obvious evidence that Athans’ marriage to Charity was void, even refusing to let the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department investigator or the other husband testify.
The couple had been married just five months before the divorce began, and they were married in South Dakota. Records of marriages are a lot harder to track across state lines and Athans thinks that’s why his now ex-wife wanted to marry there.
“I’m getting railroaded. This is a horror story,” says Athans. “It’s a lifetime movie script. I am madder than hell.”
Judge McDonald has refused to comment. Athans may actually be jailed for refusing to pay the woman who tricked him into a fake marriage. The enforcement hearing is scheduled for Tuesday August 27, 2019 at 9 a.m.
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