TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A Washington man whose wife discovered through Facebook that he had married a second woman has pleaded guilty to attempted bigamy.
Alan O'Neill, 42, was charged in March after his first wife learned of his second wife through a Facebook "people you may know" notification and alerted authorities.
The second woman's profile photo showed her with O'Neill, dressed in fancy clothes and standing near a wedding cake, The Tacoma News Tribune reported Friday.
O'Neill, who was accompanied to court by the second woman, told Superior Court Judge Beverly Grant he never meant to commit a crime.
"I've never done anything intentionally wrong in my life," he said Thursday.
O'Neill was spared jail time but will be on probation for a year. The charge is a gross misdemeanor.
He has annulled his second marriage and is divorcing his first wife.
His first wife, though, seems to have forgiven him. She wrote a letter of support, saying that the media coverage has been enough punishment.
"He just made a bad decision that hurt a few people's feelings and (brought) embarrassment to himself," she wrote.
O'Neill's lawyer, Philip Thornton, told the judge his client tried to get a divorce from his first wife before he married the second one. O'Neill trusted a neighbor to process his divorce through Lincoln County, but the neighbor didn't file the paperwork, Thornton said.
