I-Team Exclusive: Former Fort Bragg soldier indicted in bigamy case
FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- A former Fort Bragg soldier has been indicted in a bigamy case involving his Fayetteville and Jamaican wives.
Former Army Sgt. Courtney Brown, 30, was indicted on bigamy charges by a Cumberland County grand jury late last month. Brown was the subject of an I-Team investigation that aired during that time period.
Read the complete investigation here.
In 2009, when Brown met Saroya Pendleton-Brown in Fayetteville, he was also married to Renee Stewart, a Jamaican woman. In 2011, he and Pendleton-Brown married in South Carolina.
Earlier this year, Pendleton-Brown discovered multiple marriage certificates in boxes she unpacked once the couple was transferred from Fort Bragg to Fort Benning, Georgia. She said she thought she was Brown's first and only wife, but she was his fourth wife. She and wife number three, Stewart, were married to Brown at the same time.
During an August 2014 interview with the I-Team, Pendleton-Brown said she took the discovery to Brown's commanders at Fort Benning, and worried he wouldn't be prosecuted for the crime that falls under Article 32.
"The military has informed me at this time that they do not prosecute adultery or bigamy due to resources, due to things that they just don't have the money to do," she said during the interview. "They don't have the time."
The Army did not prosecute Brown for bigamy. Instead, after months of congressional inquiries, and military and civilian investigations, they discharged him for fraud, forgery and adultery. That discharge was in early October. Military officials would not characterize the terms of Brown's discharge for the I-Team.
In June 2014, Cumberland County did grant an annulment for the Browns based on bigamy. That's when they discovered Courtney Brown had defrauded the courts when he filed for divorce from Stewart in 2011. At the time, he convinced the courts that Stewart lived in Fayetteville and had consented to a divorce. Stewart had actually never stepped foot in the United States, and had not consented to a divorce.
A RARE PROSECUTION
Fayetteville divorce attorney Lee Boughman, of Adams, Burge and Boughman, PLLC, notes the rarity of bigamy prosecutions in North Carolina, largely due to honest clerical mistakes, prosecutors' resources and the lack of concern amongst the parties involved.
"It can be considered a victimless crime because people don't complain about it," Boughman said. "Actually, I can't recall a bigamy case being prosecuted in Fayetteville in the 25 years I've been here."
Brown is due back in Cumberland County court for a December pre-trial hearing. He is still legally married to Stewart, who told the I-Team she is trying to get a divorce.
Neither Brown nor his former attorney returned previous calls from the I-Team, and a court-documented cell phone number for him has been disconnected.
