- April 18, 2024
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A convicted sexual offender was arrested the morning of Thursday, Dec. 14 on charges of bigamy.
Paul Stout, 49, married a woman in Flagler County in June of 2013, while — unbeknownst to his new bride — he was still legally married to a different woman from Indianapolis since 1996.
“This isn’t a crime often committed today,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in a Flagler County Sheriff's Office news release. “This guy obviously has a silver tongue and betrayed two unsuspecting women. I hope this arrest gives some sense of relief to the betrayed wives.”
The first wife alerted the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in 2013 after she discovered her husband's new marriage through Facebook. They had separated in 2005, but never divorced. She reached out to him for an explanation, and he said he'd filed for divorce in California when he was living there.
She checked court records and found no records of a divorce filing. When Stout told her he'd send her a copy but then never followed though, she contacted the Sheriff's Office.
A deputy investigated and charges were filed in 2013, but the case was closed without prosecution.
It resumed in February 2017. A deputy assigned to investigate the case again spoke to the second wife, who said she was unaware her husband was married when she married him, and that she wanted to press charges.
She had a document showing that Stout had submitted a petition in Flagler County for dissolution of his previous marriage, but not until February 2014 — after she'd married him.
A deputy who interviewed Stout noted in an arrest affidavit that Stout couldn't provide any documentation showing that he hadn't married his second wife while still married to his first wife.
Stout was convicted in 2015 of possession of child pornography and is currently serving a court-ordered term of community monitoring supervised by the Florida Department of Corrections, according to the news release.
Stout has been jailed at the Flagler County Detention Facility with a $1,500 bond.
