Sioux Falls man facing rare bigamy charge

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – A Sioux Falls man is facing a rare bigamy charge after his first wife told police that he had married a second woman.

The man’s first wife said she and her husband, Christopher Thielsen, were married in 2013, but the relationship ended in March of this year. The man married again in May without a divorcing his first wife.

Bigamy is a felony in South Dakota, punishable by up to two years in prison and a $4,000 fine. Tim Bormann, chief of staff in the Attorney General’s Office, says the last time there were bigamy charges filed in South Dakota was in 2012, when a man married another person two months before a divorce with his original spouse was final.

AP-WF-08-16-19 1156GMT