
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 21, 1994                   TAG: 9403210069
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

VA. BEACH MAN GUILTY OF BIGAMY

Yolanda L. Brown got a call last November from the bank, requesting that she come to the branch office. More than $8,000 had been withdrawn or overdrawn from the account she shared with her husband.

She went home and searched the briefcase of her husband, Anthony Brown. Along with account information from a half-dozen banks, she found a marriage certificate. Her name was not on it. Tony Brown had another wife, Angela R. Brown.

Yolanda Brown, 26, contacted Angela Brown, 22, and the two women stayed up most of the night comparing notes.

"I was trying to figure out how he had another life," Angela Brown said. "He was telling her he was on business trips."

They eventually discovered there were at least two other Mrs. Browns, and the husband of them all pleaded guilty last week to bigamy, a crime rarely prosecuted in Hampton Roads.

Authorities said Brown looted the bank accounts of three of his four wives.

Brown, 21, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with seven years suspended. He still faces 37 bank fraud and bad check charges in Virginia Beach and Norfolk.

"I didn't know it was going down like this. I know I'm not the only person who's done this. I'm just the one who got caught," Brown said last week. "I regret marrying all of them. I wouldn't be in this position. My real regret is coming to Virginia.

"I wasn't too enlightened on Virginia law. In some states it's possible to marry more than one woman. By me going to the same commissioner, I didn't think they checked that too close. The rules are so lax. They don't even know if I'm marrying my own sister."

Each time Brown took a bride, the man who administered the vows was Norfolk marriage commissioner Frank Decker.

Decker said he performs 500 to 600 marriages a year and simply can't remember all the faces. Decker said he did nothing wrong.

"If he came in here with a fifth license, I wouldn't know the guy," Decker said. "When they come to my office with the proper license, the money and the woman, I marry them."

Brown said he thought the wedding ceremonies were just part of the licensing process and he didn't realize he had gotten married. "I've never been through a real marriage with a priest and a reception," Brown said. "The word marriage is vague in my mind. It's not even in my mind."

by CNB