James Island man to get trial on bigamy charge

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A Lowcountry man charged with bigamy has requested a trial on the charge.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reports (http://bit.ly/Jx7vaJs) that authorities say 31-year-old Michel Lee of James Island married but was never was legally divorced from his first wife.

But Lee’s attorney, Mark Peper, says his client was never knowingly married to two women at once.

Peper says that Lee’s first wife in Tennessee kicked him out and said she was getting a divorce. Peper says Lee married again when he came to Charleston three years later and thought he was divorced at the time.

Conviction on a charge of bigamy can be punished by as much as five years in jail.

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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.postandcourier.com