Facebook 'friend' offer exposes man's other wife

[jdegree]

SEATTLE ?

Facebook's automatic efforts to connect users through "friends" they may know recently led two Washington women to find out they were married to the same man, at the same time.

That led to the man, corrections officer Alan L. O'Neill, being slapped with bigamy charges.

According to charging documents filed Thursday, O'Neill married a woman in 2001, moved out in 2009, changed his name and remarried without divorcing her. The first wife first noticed O'Neill had moved on to another woman when Facebook suggested the friendship connection to wife No. 2 under the "People You May Know" feature.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017712579_apusbigamyfacebook6thldwritethru.html

[mak123]

this is really bad.... :angry:

[nvllsvm]

I did not know it is a crime to be married to more than one person. Turns out the penalty for such is a fine and or up to five years in prison.

[Slayer]

Being married has repercussions with the government, particularly the IRS.

[Brian Miller]

So, it's illegal so sleep around but it's not OK to marry more than once?

[DrunkenBeard]

Why is bigamy something bad in some western countries anyway ? It's certainly legal over here if you meet some requirements.

[MightyJordan]

Why is bigamy something bad in some western countries anyway ? It's certainly legal over here if you meet some requirements.

Yeah, it is a mystery. If you're married and you cheat on your wife and effectively start up an entirely new family with your mistress, that's legal, but if you go to two women and say "Look, I love you both equally, so how about I marry both of you?", and they both agree to it, that's breaking the law. :wacko:

[Damien]

Facebook Tips 101: Dear users , using the friend suggest feature you can determine if your spouse has other marital partners. :rofl:

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Not that I agree with what the guy did, but this is why I don't like Facebook.

In messages for instance, why is there an "archive message" that actually looks alike a "delete message" button? Why not have an option there to "delete" - why hide it away in the "actions" bit?

[Japlabot]

The reason why it is illegal is simply because it screws around with "the system" too much. The legal system simply is not set up to handle it as far as family law, taxation etc. Also "the system" is designed to make it hard to enter/terminate marriages easily party on pressure from religious institutions as they invented "marriages" and partly to prevent misuse of "marriages" for legal/financial gain.