HOUSTON – A man who portrayed himself as a bishop and entered into marriages with three different women since 2019 has been sentenced to three years in prison after committing bigamy yet again, just two months following probation for the same offense, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Tuesday.
“At the heart of this repeat offender’s schemes was a plan to defraud women and take advantage of them for financial gain,” Ogg stated. “This man used the church to camouflage his scams and hide from any accountability or responsibility.”
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Orlando Coleman, 51, was sentenced to three years in prison for marrying a third woman just two months after being placed on probation for being married to two other women at the same time.
Coleman presented himself as a bishop who traveled to churches around the country. Prosecutors suspect he married at least 10 women in different states.
Bigamy, the act of being married to more than one person at a time, is a third-degree felony in Texas.
In 2021, Coleman married a woman from Houston.
Five months into their marriage, the new wife discovered Coleman was receiving money from a woman in Virginia. The Houston woman contacted the other woman who revealed she and Coleman had been married since 2019.
The Houston woman then contacted authorities. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office investigated and filed bigamy charges.
Coleman pleaded guilty to bigamy in July 2023 in exchange for three years of deferred adjudication probation. Nonetheless, just two months later, while still married to the Virginia woman, he married another woman from Kentucky.
When prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office found out, they revoked his probation. Coleman was sentenced to three years in prison at a hearing on March 11.
Assistant District Attorney Vanessa Goussen, who prosecuted Coleman, said his victims described him as a con man who married them for room and board and whatever money they could provide.
Goussen has this advice for women when it comes to love:
“Run a background check, if possible, or try searching their name on the internet, look at their social media, and ask a lot of questions,” Goussen said. “Unfortunately, many con artists hide behind important sounding titles, and it is easier than you think to get swept off your feet.”