Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." -- Sir Walter Scott

California State Law allows confidential marriages with a minimum of fuss: no marriage license, no blood test, no three-day waiting period and, best of all, no public record that the marriage ever took place.

The century-old statute was intended to allow common-law couples to legitimize their marriages quietly and without embarrassment. Now growing numbers of couples are using the law to avoid red tape and keep word of the marriages from parents and friends. In 1972, only 532 such weddings were performed in Los Angeles County and adjacent Orange County. Last year it was 12,212.
'It's one of the greatest laws,' says Edie Steinmetz, owner of the Doves of Happiness Wedding Chapel in Inglewood, a leader in the state's $700,000-a-year secret-marriage industry. 'It allows a lot of people to get married who otherwise would not be able to'—including the already married.

Couples fill in a confidential marriage form, which is filed with the county clerk and is then unavailable for inspection by anyone. That makes it easy for applicants’ intent on bigamy. Says William St. John, Orange County clerk: 'There is nothing on the form that requires a couple to say how long they have been living together, if they had a previous marriage or divorce, and if the divorce is finalized.'

OTHER CASES

THIS CASE HEARD BY JUDGE DUFFICY

Those Marin educators! Jim, a Marin educator, and Morgan Olson have a Confidential Marriage, a common tool to avoid bigamy charges. Olson, now College of Marin Band Director, has been recently accused of living a double life/bigamy/polygamy in a Reno, Nevada divorce filed Feb 2007 DV07-00352.

WEST VIRGINA BIGAMIST

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

DAMAGES FOR VICTIMS

Far too often we are left emotional bereft, traumatized by the games the predator/bigamist plays.  Yes the predator is playing games, they torture, they harass, and they lie lie lie lie their way out of a situation of their doing.  They leave chaos

behind, and the victims struggle to get justice, help and do get ridiculed.

we need to stop the stem of this fraud.   It is the fastest rising crime, of identity theft, fraud and romancing the stone so to speak. These people get away with it time after time.

Augusta Salinas White got Mr. White to marry her in a Confidential Marriage . No evidence has turned up that Augusta was ever divorced.All records including her other name, Josephine Salinas show no divorces in the Sate of California.

Some records show she married someone while being married to Mr. White. All her marriages had beeni n Reno, Nevada.

This woman must be stopped! IJust think, that if this were true, how many charges she would have against her would be sky high. Only time will tell.