Facebook trips up Tacoma man with 2 wives

TACOMA, Wash., March 10 (UPI) -- A Washington state jail officer was on leave Saturday after a chance Facebook encounter raised allegations of bigamy, officials said.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said Alan O'Neill, 41, was placed on administrative leave this week after prosecutors filed a felony charge alleging he was married to two women who happened to connect on Facebook recently.

The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., said O'Neill's current wife and the wife he supposedly walked out on three years ago met on Facebook after the first woman received a computer-generated invite to "friend" the bride he currently lives with.

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said O'Neill, formerly known as Alan Fulk, apparently never bothered to legally divorce his first wife. "It's not the crime of the century, but it is a crime," Lindquist said.