MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – Mark Athans of Willis in Montgomery County said two months of marriage to a woman, who may have been married to one and possibly two other men at the same time she was married to him, may end up costing him his career and life savings.
Athans says Montgomery County Judge Patrice McDonald has ordered him to pay Charity Lenee Parchem $96,000 in support and lawyer fees Tuesday morning or face the possibility of jail.
A court document obtained by KPRC 2 does in fact show that Parchem was indicted this past April on bigamy charges, showing she was legally married to a man named Trevor Hendry. But Montgomery County Judge McDonald would not allow the bigamy indictment be brought up in the divorce proceedings.
Athans and Parchem were married in August 2017 and divorced in October 2017.
"It was just a lot of deception that was not making sense to me," Athans said. "As a reasonable human being, she planned all this. I was a mark. She's lied and deceived all of us. She has lied and deceived other people. And she keeps winning. But the thing that worries us is she's hurting all of us. She's hurting you, she's hurting our family. What did we do to deserve that?"
KPRC 2 reached out to McDonald's office and was told she will not be commenting as this is an ongoing case.
Athans' next court hearing was originally scheduled for Tuesday morning but was reset to Sept. 25.
