00:00After just two months of marriage, a man discovered that his wife was still married
00:04to two other men, making their marriage invalid. However, when he tried to have the sham marriage
00:09annulled, a female judge wouldn't hear the evidence and instead ordered him to pay his
00:13bigamist ex-$96,000 in alimony or go to jail. When Mark Athens found the love of his life,
00:20at age 56, he thought he would finally get a happy ending to his story.
00:25Excitedly, the medical professional married 42-year-old Charity Lenny Parkham in South
00:29Dakota before sweeping her away to his Texas home, where he then introduced his new bride
00:33to his son. Although Athens' son struggles with autism, the disorder hasn't stripped him
00:39of his intuition. Going on instinct, the young man began researching his father's new wife,
00:44uncovering her disturbing criminal history. Unfortunately, her police record was only the
00:49beginning of the nightmare. Athens discovered that his blushing bride was already married
00:54to two other men and had committed bigamy by marrying for a third time without ever legally
00:58divorcing. Outraged, he filed for divorce just two months after their sham marriage.
01:04Subsequently, Parkham was arrested and jailed for bigamy. However, instead of simply dissolving
01:09their illegal union and holding Parkham accountable for her crimes, a judge is rewarding her behavior.
01:15According to KPRC, Montgomery County Court Judge Patrice MacDonald has refused to see any evidence
01:21of Parkham's bigamy and upheld a ruling that Athens must pay his bigamist ex-$96,000 in alimony as
01:27well
01:28as her court costs and lawyer fees or face jail, which totals up to $3,000 a month.
01:33Despite the fact that federal and state laws maintain that marriages conducted while one
01:37of the parties are still married are invalid, Judge MacDonald has ignored Parkham's bigamy charges.
01:43It was just a lot of deception that was not making sense to me, Athens said.
01:47As a reasonable human being, she planned all this. I was a mark. She's lied and deceived all of us.
01:54She has lied and deceived other people. And she keeps winning. But the thing that worries us is
01:59she's hurting all of us. She's hurting you. She's hurting our family. What did we do to deserve that?
02:05Incredibly, Judge MacDonald would not allow Athens and his attorney to introduce evidence showing that
02:11Parkham had been indicted on bigamy. Additionally, she blocked Parkham's legal husband, Trevor Hendry.
02:17From testifying that he is still married to the woman. Although he faces losing his career and
02:22life savings, Athens is more worried about what will happen to his son. He is concerned that going
02:27to jail will leave his autistic son without anyone to help him since he is his sole caregiver.
02:33What am I supposed to tell my son? I'm sorry, son, but I got to go to jail for 18
02:38months,
02:39Athens said. I'm not trapped. I'm up against the wall. My last resort was to bring this before the
02:45public. Hopefully, the public can show, if anything, how bad this has gotten. It shouldn't
02:50have gotten this far. The court is responsible for this. In a desperate bid to resolve the
02:55nightmare court ruling, Athens has made one final plea to his ex. To prove that their marriage was
03:01never valid, he's asking Parkham to prove that she's legally divorced from her two other husbands.
03:07There is an easy solution to this problem, Athens said. Charity, show your divorce records.
03:12For now, Judge McDonald has remained mum on her controversial ruling. She only explained that
03:18she wouldn't comment on the case since it is still open under her jurisdiction, according to ABC 13.
03:25Although Athens has appealed Judge McDonald's ruling, he is still ordered to pay the $3,000 per
03:30month in alimony and court fees to Parkham while the case is pending. Disturbingly, there is no guarantee
03:36that, even if he makes it into court without going to jail, his appeal will be granted. For now,
03:41Parkham will be allowed to collect thousands of dollars from an innocent man she emotionally
03:46and financially conned. Hopefully, this story will spread far and wide, placing pressure on
03:51the judge to do the right thing.
