Bigamist busted after wives find each other on Facebook

A Washington corrections officer has pleaded guilty to attempted bigamy after his wife discovered through a Facebook notification that he had married a second woman.

An "embarrassed and remorseful" Alan O'Neill, 42, received a suspended sentence from Superior Court Beverly Grant on Thursday and has been put on probation for one year, the Tacoma News Tribune reported.

O'Neill was charged in March after his first wife Ellenora Fulk learned of his second wife through a Facebook 'people you may know' notification.

Fulk, who was estranged from him at the time had alerted authorities. The second woman's profile photo showed her and O'Neill dressed in fancy clothes and standing near a wedding cake.

O'Neill's lawyer, Philip Thornton, told the court that his client had trusted a neighbour to process his divorce through Lincoln County but the neighbour did not file the paperwork.
O'Neill since has gotten his marriage to his second wife annulled and is divorcing his first, Thornton said.

"He is extremely embarrassed and remorseful," the attorney said.

O'Neill, who was accompanied to court by the second woman, told the court that he never meant to commit a crime.

"I've never done anything intentionally wrong in my life," he said.

His first wife appears willing to let bygones be bygones. She filed a letter with the court in which she wrote she believed O'Neill had suffered enough because of the media coverage of the case.

He just made a bad decision that hurt a few people's feelings and (brought) embarrassment to himself, she wrote.