A Montgomery County judge has ordered 56 year old Mark Athans of Willis to fork over $96,000 in support and legal fees to his ex.
Athans and 42-year-old Charity Parchem exchanged vows in August of 2017 in South Dakota, although both are from Willis, Texas. The marriage fell apart after right away and was legally dissolved after five.
Shortly in to their union, he learned she was already married to two other men, one she was seeing behind Athan's back.
During divorce proceedings she was indicted on a charge of bigamy. Athans says that means they were never married, and he's not paying. "I have done nothing illegal, except for telling the judge, no, I'm holding you accountable. You are not God." He adds the judge asked in court, why are you not doing this. (paying) "I said because I am not married to her. And you had suspicions that she was possibly married to somebody else other than me and you had the ability to say something, and you didn't."
Athan's spokesman, Wayne Dolcefino says the judge wouldn't let the sheriff's detective and Parchem's real husband testify. "This is nuts. This is like the Guinness book of judicial stupidity."
The judge told Athens that if he didn't pay, he would be sent to jail for 18 months. Athans, who has an autistic son, says that would be devastating. "It's not that we can't rebuild, it's just what am I supposed to tell my son whenever I get arrested, and I say, son, I've got to go to jail for 18 months. We've never been apart."
He thinks she wanted to get married there because it's much harder to trace marriage licenses across state lines.
He says she wiped out his life's savings of $400,000 when they were together and that he's already paid her attorney $40,000. He says he's now living paycheck to paycheck.
A call to her lawyer was not returned. The case has been postponed until September 25th.
