It is becoming apparent to me that the National Database of Marriages and Divorces is a must in this country.  All too often the bigamists disregard the state lines.  I had a vague understanding that crossing the state lines to commit a crime is a felony. In this case it raises the issue of how easy it is to cross the state lines and commit felonies.

 

I have listened and heard so many victims' stories.  The refrain seems to be the same, there is resemblence in all of our stories, each one of the bigamists, con artists crossed the state lines.  The cyber predators cross all state lines and even international boundaries. It is a crime that is hard to stop.

 

We Need the National Database of Marriages and Divorces in order for it not to be so easy for identities to be changed at will.

 

I found out that my ex browsed the death records, and obtained social security number., He was also friends with illegal immigrants and did buy the social security number off of one that was being deported.He bought that social security number while he was in prison in TX, and that is a scary thought!

 

We need to have this Database, and have it tie into the social security database. This would help curtail the misuse of  social security numbers, and also the marriages without benefit of divorce...from happening. 

Our system is not working and we need to find a better way. This National Database will help ensure that NO more 'victimless' crimes occur as we are viewed.

 

Far too many people are getting conned.  It isn't just someone who did not have an education, but also people from all walks of life.  This crime has no bias against who is the victim!

 

These predators do pick their victims and they manipulate the system to get away with as little prison time, and  the system also helps them!

 

I should know, Barber was allowed to plea bargain down serious charges that would have netted him years in prison, for a measly 3 years by pleading guilty to falsifying marriage records, and he only had to serve 8 months.  A newspaper quoted the DA stating that HE did time for his crimes, and should not be given a long sentence! Good grief, he is a repeat offender, that means he will do this over and over again. Why do the DA's in many states not pursue these criminals?  We are not consider victims. We are conned out of money, lied to, by these people using false identities, and or variations of their names, and we are left with the financial mess, and the emotional trauma they inflicted on ourselves and our families.

 

 

It is a frustrating battle that victims have to fight in order to find justice. I have not found justice for myself, but if this petition is going to be noticed, and I can go before Congress to make it a fact, that would mean more to me than anything.  I would be able to help one more person NOT be a victim of these predators.

 

PLEASE Sign the Petition, we need the support. Thank you to all those that have signed our petition.

 

 http://www.PetitionOnline.com/its2bad4/petition.html

Donna Layne Roberts

My story may have been in the news media, but it does not give others free rein to do with it as they pleased. There is a certain blogger out there that posts others stories without their permission, and that is unethical.

 

I have certain blogs where my story and the petition and the Open Letter to Congress is listed. They were kind enough to ask permission.  They also do not call me names or my friends names just because we disagree with their opinion. 

 

It is a sad state of affairs when one has a blog and a story that someone can lift that story without your direct permission. When their ethics are questionable you know that 1. they are NOT true writers, 2. They are violating a copyright.

 

Every story that I have printed on here, I have asked for permission to put it on my blog, including all the links that I have included.

 

Our Fight Bigamy group needs support not harrassment from other folks. Everyone is a victim at some point in time.

 

Our petition is garnering support and that is the nice thing.  After being frustrated in the current state of the

judicial system we the victims realize that we need to do something to protect others from being victimized like we were.

Beware of the ethics from some dishonest people.   Donna

5 June 2006

 

Distinguished Members of Congress:

 

It is a sad state of affairs within our country, when bigamists can get away with committing a crime so easily and destroy the lives of innocent, trusting victims.

 

Bigamy is a travesty because:

• It is a crime that is hard to get prosecuted
• There is always more than one victim
• Victims are usually defrauded and damaged financially

 

 

In many instances, bigamy is considered a crime without a victim. Many district attorneys' offices of the states where bigamy is a felony will not even pursue the offenders, leaving their victims without justice; in addition to much debt based on the fraudulent nature of the marriage. In those few cases where bigamy is prosecuted, most offenders get off with a "slap on the wrist" and short-term probation.

 

In most cases, bigamy could not be committed if there was a National Database of Marriages and Divorces. We need such a law, and we need such a database. The two most populous countries in the world, China and India, are instituting a similar registry. A National Marriage/Divorce database would be most helpful and save many victims of this - the most ultimate of fraud. Currently, a petition is online asking Congress to enact such a database.

 

Below are some bigamy victims’ statements providing evidence of how bigamists, many who are con artists, prey on their victims via the Internet and hurt their victims emotionally and financially. This is not an inclusive list of statements, there are many more; often victims are too embarrassed to report this crime.

 

Randy Bish's story:

 

“In my case, MANY lives were damaged by the crime including me, my five small children, my family and the family members of each of her other ‘husbands’. She married two men in the same county, and the Clerk did not catch that. Julia was not only a bigamist but she was an Internet predator, she met her other 'husbands' online. She also forced me into deep debt.”

 

Donna Layne Roberts' story:

 

“William Michael Barber married a woman eight days after he left me. He stated on the marriage application that I was his last known wife, and yet used a divorce decree from another woman, whose name was clearly not mine; even his name was different on the divorce decree, and the clerk granted the marriage license, anyway. William also is an internet predator and had a list of twenty women on his computer of which his last wife was listed. He had prior convictions of bigamy in Illinois and California. He left me financially destitute and homeless. He is currently on parole, and has an outstanding warrant for back child support of $51,000. He will find another victim to con and marry, as this has been his way of life for 35 years.”

 

Sandra Phipps (Hicks’) story:

 

“Ed Hicks has seven confirmed marriages and four overlap. He left me in financial distress; he left some in financial ruin. Bigamy, fraud, and deception were a pattern of life for him for over forty years. Ed Hicks was sentenced recently for felony bigamy. His sentence was five years in a Virginia prison with four suspended, which doesn't sound like much, but it is a sentencing victory for all victims of bigamy. He also preys on women via the Internet, as do many con artist/bigamists. Hicks even worked for the Federal Government/Department of Defense as a civilian and possessed a Secret Security Clearance.”

 

Julie Flint (Hicks') story:

 

“Ed Hicks lied to me about his number of marriages, about how old he was, and about going to college. Ed Hicks took away my ability to trust, and he ruined me financially. I had to file bankruptcy because of Ed Hicks and I lost my car. Had it not been for my parents letting me live in their home I would have been homeless.”

 

Patricia Tompkins' story:

 

“I am the victim of bigamist Swen O. Tompkins from Illinois. I learned during my ‘so called’ marriage that my husband actually had another wife, and had been married to her for eight years supporting himself, her and their daughter with my money that I had received from a terrible auto accident and working my own business. This man has ruined my trust in people, devastated me financially and emotionally. He has affected my children's lives, my family, everyone involved, and yet he is walking free to do this to another woman.”

 

Linda Pollington’s story:

Linda Pollington wonders why an Allen County, Indiana judge allowed a man to marry somebody else while he was still married to her, why another local judge married the same couple two months later without even knowing about the previous ceremony, and why local prosecutors have done little to investigate an apparent case of bigamy, which can be punished by up to three years in prison.

From the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel

 

 

Kathryn Robinson’s story:

 

“I'm Kathryn Robinson. I am married to a bigamist. He got a license to marry another woman August 20, 2004; the marriage was certified on May 26, 2005. The woman he married acknowledges that she knew was married, so she admits to bigamy. They have hurt my daughter, and took $100,000 from me. No one cares to stop the crimes that they are perpetuating. I have lost everything because of my bigamist: John F. Robinson and his wife Abigail L. Robinson.”

 

Rose Perez’s story:

Rose Perez found multiple marriage licenses for her husband of two years, Francisco Perez. “You don't know what to do because you don't know if you've got a husband. You don't know if that wife – what’s going on with them, and I know she's struggling to make it,” Perez said. Rose Perez went to the Harris County courthouse and found that her husband had two active marriage licenses. She was shocked, “especially here in Texas you go to the courthouse and you think they could catch that, but no,” Rose Perez said.

From Click2Houston.com

Michelle Wilson’s story:

“An alleged bigamist was returned to Northampton County Prison after being arrested for failing to show for a preliminary hearing. Robert Ray Wilson Jr. admitted that he was married to Michele Wilson when he married Poe, records say. On his marriage license application in Lehigh County, Wilson stated that he had no prior marriages, records say

From the Express-Times

Susan McIntosh’s story:

Susan McIntosh, 49, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., married accused art thief Patrick McIntosh, 36, and he is also married to two other South Florida women. All say they remain married to him. Wife number 4 has just been found in Mercer County, West Virginia.

      From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Holly Terwilliger’s story:

“I see a pattern of deception,” Judge Carol Egly told defendant Steven Thomas who admitted to being married to two women at the same time. “...I see no acceptance of responsibility.” In five years through 2005, there were only six bigamy convictions in Iowa. Most offenders got probation or a few days in jail. Terwilliger believes bigamy ought to be a felony, and after hearing her story, an Iowa victims’ rights organization plans to lobby to make it one. She points out that a fraudulent marriage can be an entry point to financial crimes.

From the Des Moines Register

 

Douglas Rice’s story:

Douglas Rice, one of the husbands, said he met Kyle McConnell on the Internet last summer and married her Sept. 23 in a civil ceremony. According to police, she had a trail of as many as 15 husbands in her past. “She told me she only had been married once, but I found out I was only one sucker in a bunch,” Rice said. St. Clair County sheriff's Detective Tim Donnellon said, “By the time these poor guys would find out what was happening, she would split and move on to the next guy”. Donnellon said he estimates McConnell has had about 15 husbands because of the number of names she used. “A lot of times these things aren't reported," he said. "People are embarrassed ... so it's hard to get hard numbers.”

From the Detroit Free Press

 

Currently, Nevada, Texas, and Florida have a marriage license database that is searchable. Moreover, California has a 'confidential' marriage license that costs extra and can only be obtained by a court order, just as if it is sealed. All marriage licenses in Kansas are private. This information should be public knowledge freely available to all citizens and jurisdictions.

 

Marriage licenses are ‘handed out’ by counties, and currently there are over 3200 counties in the United States. A person is “at their word” when they sign a marriage license application that they are single or divorced. No checking is ever done. If a citizen tries to learn if someone is married, the search is similar to looking for a 'needle in a haystack', as each jurisdiction has its own guidelines asbout searching for information.

 

 

We need to take a stand to prevent this from happening to other victims. Granted, these few stories are just the tip of the iceberg, but they show that this is happening all too frequently. Families are torn apart and financial hardship befalls the victims.

 

It is a travesty that our country is so lenient in our laws against bigamy, because this shows that these criminals use the system to their advantage. If we have a bill to enact a National Database of Marriages and Divorces and if that database was placed in every marriage clerk’s office, we can curtail this crime

Attached is list of other websites that have stories pertaining to bigamists. The fact of the matter is there will always be stories of someone being a victim of fraud and bigamy, as long as we do not have a National Database of Marriages and Divorces.

 

Thank you,

Donna Layne Roberts

 

List of Websites: National Database of Marriages and Divorces Petition

 

• http://fightbigamy.typepad.com

 

• http://spaces.msn.com/survivingabadchoice

 

• http://lovefraud.com

 

• http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies.htm

 

• http://www.straighshooter.net/Sweetheart_Scam_Justice.htm

 

• http://cyberpaths.blogspot.com

 http://www.PetitionOnline.com/its2bad4/petition.html

 

 http://www.aidsstories.com/mail.html