TYLER, Texas, Aug. 8 (UPI) — Marriage or jail — that was the choice given to a man in Texas by Smith County Judge Randall Rogers. Instead of spending 15 days in jail, 21-year-old Josten Bundy chose to tie the knot with his girlfriend Elizabeth Jaynes.
On July 2, Bundy pleaded guilty to assault with bodily injury, a charge stemming from a fight with his girlfriend’s ex.
“[The ex-boyfriend] had been saying disrespectful things about Elizabeth, so I challenged him to a fight,” Bundy recalled. “He stepped in and I felt like it was on and I hit him in the jaw twice.”
Josten was ready to spend 15 days in jail, but Judge Rogers denied the defendant’s request to call his job to tell them of his potential absence.
“The judge told me ‘nope, that’s not how this works,’” Josten told local news station KLTV. Faced with the prospect of losing his job, Bundy and Jaynes, 19, were married at City Hall on July 20.
In addition to being married within 30 days, Bundy’s two-year probation conditions require him to write out a Bible verse from Proverbs 26:27 25 times per day — “If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it.”
“We figured he’d get probation but were surprised about the other conditions, especially the marriage,” Jaynes told CNN.
After asking Josten if he was okay with the conditions, Jaynes said “the judge made me stand up and asked me if I was OK with it. I said yes. People were laughing behind me and the bailiff had to say ‘order in the court.’ It was embarrassing.”
The rushed wedding kept some of Bundy’s family members from being able to attend the courthouse ceremony. Neither of the couple’s parents were pleased with the circumstances.
Attorney Blake Bailey, a constitutional lawer, told KLTV the judge’s actions were illegal and out of line.
“To say you’re not going to be criminally punished if you get married is way out of left field,” Bailey said. “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.”
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