By Deanna Boyd, Fort Worth Star-Telegram –
FORT WORTH, Texas—A 38-year-old Grand Prairie businessman has been charged with bigamy on accusations that he was married to two unsuspecting Tarrant County women at the same time.
The case came to light, police say, after the second wife called the first wife in May upon discovering that her husband, Germaine Gardea, had been paying bills for the woman.
The second wife had believed that her husband had been divorced from the first wife since 2009, said Sgt. Pedro Criado, a Fort Worth police spokesman.
In reality, court records show, Gardea had filed for divorce from the first wife in October 2009 — on the same day he married the second wife — but that the suit was later dismissed after he failed to show up at the divorce hearing.
A police report indicates Gardea had been living with his first wife in Arlington and the second wife in Grapevine.
“The first wife knew nothing of the second wife until she made contact with her,” Criado said. “(Gardea) has a job in which he travels extensively so I suppose the extended time away from either wife was easily explained until the bills were located.”
The first wife filed for divorce from Gardea within days of receiving the second wife’s call. She reported the incident to Fort Worth police in late September and on Oct. 11, Gardea was arrested on a warrant for bigamy, a third-degree felony. He was released from jail after posting a $2,000 bond.
Gardea and the second wife did not return messages Wednesday seeking comment.
Robert Hoover, the divorce attorney for the first wife, said that his client did not wish to comment and asked him not to discuss the pending divorce case.
Gardea and his first wife married on Sept. 18, 2004, and have one child together.
Court records show Gardea had filed for divorce from his first wife Oct. 16, 2009, stating in his petition that the couple had stopped living together as spouses the day before and that the marriage had become insupportable due to discord or conflict of personalities.
“My spouse and I do not get along and do not plan to live together ever again,” he stated in the petition.
That same day, court records show, he married the second wife.
It is unknown whether the first wife was even aware that Gardea had filed for divorce.
Court records show the first wife never filed a response to her husband’s 2009 filing. In her own petition for divorce filed this past May, the first wife indicates that she and Gardea had been living together from the time of their marriage until May 3 — the day she received the phone call from his second wife.
In their May phone conversation, the second wife told the first wife that she and Gardea own a business together in Grand Prairie and that she has a copy of a divorce decree that proved the first wife and Gardea were divorced. The second wife e-mailed the decree to the first wife, who told police she had never signed the documents and believes her husband forged her signature, according to a police report.
The first wife also told police that she had contacted her attorney, who advised her that there was not a divorce decree on file with the city or county.
Fort Worth police say they believe Gardea created the paperwork to convince his second wife that he was divorced.
In her divorce petition, the first wife cites as grounds for the divorce that Gardea had committed adultery and is guilty of cruel treatment toward her. A hearing has been set for April.
Gardea, a pilot, and his second wife run a Grand Prairie company that provides aircraft rentals and Cessna flight training.
