Told by judge to marry girlfriend or face 15-day jail term, Texas man ties the knot
Josten Bundy and Elizabeth Jaynes wanted to get married and had been talking about wedding plans.
But they weren’t happy to be ordered to tie the knot by a Texas criminal court judge, KLTV reports.
Bundy, who admittedly got into a fight in February with his 19-year-old girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend, had been charged with assault. The ex “had been saying disrespectful things about Elizabeth, so I challenged him to a fight,” said Bundy. “He stepped in and I felt like it was on and I hit him in the jaw twice.”
At a July hearing, Judge Randall Rogers offered Bundy probation in the Smith County case, but conditioned it on Bundy’s getting counseling, writing out Bible verses and marrying Jaynes within 30 days, says the station, which reviewed the court transcript. Otherwise, Bundy was going to get a 15-day jail term.
Bundy was willing to do the time, but both he and Jaynes were concerned he would lose his job if they didn’t marry. So, although unhappy about the rush to matrimony, they tied the knot in a summer courthouse wedding.
“It just felt like we weren’t going to be able to have the wedding we wanted,” Jaynes told the station. “It was just going to be kind of pieced together, I didn’t even have a white dress.”
Said Bundy: “My father didn’t get to go, and that really bothers me, I know he would have liked to be there. None of my sisters got to show up, it was such short notice, I couldn’t get it together.”
Hat tip: WGHP.
