Florida man who married two women escapes bigamy charges even after admitting to crime

(WKMG)

Tatiana Ochoa didn’t know she had a sister-wife until a friend showed her documents indicating that her two-timing husband had married another woman.

Ochoa first met her husband, Kenneth DeCesare, in 2009 when she started working as an assistant for his marketing firm, but the relationship quickly became romantic and in 2011 the two wed on the shores of Daytona Beach, Florida. The storybook wedding, however, quickly dissolved into something less than marital bliss and the couple quickly parted ways – although they did not finalize a divorce.

Months later, Ochoa’s friend dropped the bombshell that her estranged husband had married another woman, Alicia Fagan, in September. DeCesare has been legally married to two women for a total of nine months.

"She said 'Ken's married to another woman.' And I was like, 'Excuse me?'," Ochoa told local media about the revelation. "To hear the words 'he married someone else', I don't think there are other words that a person who is married could hear that hurt as much as that."

Freaking out about the polygamist problem, Ochoa went to the authorities and filed a complaint with the Orange County Sheriff's Office to report her husband for bigamy – a felony that carries a five-year prison sentence. Unfortunately for Ochoa, the cops said that there was not much they could do as DeCesare’s second wife, Fagan, was already filing for divorce from him and didn’t want to participate in the investigation.

"He's dead to me, buried with a tombstone," Fagan said. "I had no reason to suspect he was married."

For his part, DeCesare has apologized for his marital minefield and blamed the whole affair on his drug addiction.

“On a drug binge, I did not realize what I was doing, but I actually married a woman while I was already married. Upon realizing what I had done, I immediately told her that I could not be with her and we dissolved the marriage,” DeCesare wrote in a blog post entitled 'The Mistake of Ken DeCesare' where he admits to not even remembering walking down the aisle. “In my own defense, most of these poor decisions were made under the influence of and/or in the pursuit of substance abuse – therefore incoherent.”

DeCesare also said that he had entered a drug rehabilitation program and has filed for divorce from both women. His marriage with Fagan ended in June, but his case against Ochoa remains open, which means he is still married to her.

“However, to me, that is no excuse for my personal failings. I lied to people. I took from others. I looked the other way while my employees misled clients,” he said, according to the Daily Mail. “I cheated profusely in relationships. I offered financial payout to women in exchange for pleasure (never outright prostitution). Basically, I became a filthy and unrecognizable monster.”

Ochoa has not said how she plans to proceed in the divorce but wants other women to know of DeCesare’s two-timing ways.

"I just want that next woman, whoever she is, to not have to go through what I've gone through," said Ochoa. "He has to be held accountable for what he's done."