In another rare application of Minnesota's provisions against polygamy, a Freeborn County man has been charged with being married to two women at the same time. Authorities say the man lied about his marital status when he claimed to unmarried before marrying his current wife.

We have discussed the legal ramifications of polygamy in Minnesota a few times in this blog, most recently in our Dec. 16 post. As in virtually every other state, it is illegal in Minnesota to be married to more than one person at the same time. Once a bigamous marriage is discovered, the second marriage is legally void, meaning that the state considers it never to have existed. That means that divorce is unnecessary in cases of bigamy, at least as far as the second marriage is concerned.

That is probably what will happen to the marriage of the accused man, 41, and his 27-year-old second wife. They got married in Freeborn County on May 1, 2010. On a document asking each of them their marital status entering the marriage, the man indicated that he had never been married.

But less than a month later, a New York woman claiming to be the man's wife contacted county authorities. She told them that she and the man had married in 2003 while living in Kentucky, but at some point he left her and disappeared. The wife subsequently wanted to get married again but needed a divorce first.

She tracked her husband down in Minnesota and discovered the second marriage. A sheriff's deputy confronted the husband, who admitted being married to the woman and lying about his marital status prior to his second wedding. The deputy described the second wife as "distraught" at the revelation.

The court charged the man with felony bigamy. He faces up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines if convicted.

Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press, "In rare case, Freeborn County man charged with bigamy," Tim Engstrom, Feb. 7, 2012