A South Dakota man who is married to two women at the same time has been sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to end a marriage mess.

35-year-old Brian Wright pleaded guilty in Pierre on Tuesday to a bigamy charge. Authorities say he married a woman in May while still being married to a woman who now lives in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The first wife alerted authorities after seeing pictures posted on Facebook by Wright's second wife. A Hughes County Grand Jury indicted Wright in June.

The Pierre Capital-Journal reports that at the trial, Wright explained why the first marriage was still active. “I was married prior . . . and I didn’t take care of it in a legal way or anything,” Wright said. “The person I had married had left town and moved away. I made a mistake when I got married again.”

Wright’s attorney, Robert Konrad, told Judge John Brown that Wright and his previous–but-still-current wife separated about a year after marrying, that she has lived out of state “for some time.” Judge Brown told him to "get your messy affairs in order" by legally ending both marriages and then remarrying his second wife.

Marriage number one will end in divorce. Meanwhile the second marriage will be annulled. The plan going forward is to remarry the second woman after all proper legal steps are taken.

 

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