Judge Orders Texas Man to Marry Girlfriend, Write Bible Verses, or Go to Jail
Obeying the order of a judge in Smith County, Texas, a 20-year-old man has married his 19-year-old girlfriend, written Bible verses and got counseling to avoid a 15-day jail term for punching his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend.
Judge Randall Rogers ordered Josten Bundy to marry his girlfriend Elizabeth Jaynes, following which the two promptly applied for their marriage license and scheduled a date with the justice to get married, according to KLTV.
Bundy had punched the ex-boyfriend of Jaynes twice after an altercation. Jaynes ex was "saying disrespectful things about Elizabeth," he was quoted as saying.
"You know, as a part of my probation, you're going to have to marry her…within 30 days." Judge Rogers told Bundy in the court last month.
"He offered me 15 days in jail and that would have been fine and I asked if I could call my job [to let them know]," Bundy was quoted as saying. "The judge told me 'nope, that's not how this works.'"
To save Bundy's job, Jaynes agreed. "It just felt like we weren't going to be able to have the wedding we wanted," she was quoted as saying. "It was just going to be kind of pieced together, I didn't even have a white dress."
The couple said they could get only 18 days to make arrangements didn't have the sufficient time to invite their close friends and relatives.
"My father didn't get to go, and that really bothers me, I know he would have liked to be there," Bundy said. "None of my sisters got to show up, it was such short notice, I couldn't get it together."
Attorney Blake Bailey called the order "illegal."
"To say you're not going to be criminally punished if you get married is way out of left field," Bailey was quoted as saying. "It sounds like the old days of shotgun weddings, but not even the judge is capable of enforcing, what he thinks is best for some people in his court."
