A Connecticut correction officer has been charged with bigamy after an audit of his benefits turned up two wives.
State police charged Kevin Hornak, 50, of Stratford, on Wednesday after both women presented investigators with valid marriage certificates.
Police said Hornak married his first wife while he was in the Navy and stationed in Philadelphia in 1984.
In 2004, she found out that he was seeing another woman, told him to get out of the house and said she was going to divorce him, according to court records.
She never did.
In May 2005, Hornak married his second wife at a bed and breakfast in Vermont, according to court records.
Police said Hornak told them that his second wife became very possessive and controlling during their relationship and insisted on getting married so that she could be covered by his insurance.
She discouraged him from speaking to his first wife and he’d heard through "reliable sources" that his divorce had gone through.
At work, he took his first wife off his insurance, according to court records, and his employer never challenged that he was divorced.
Then, he added his second wife and presented his new marriage certificate.
In 2010, Hornak’s marriage with his second wife started to “go downhill,” according to court records.
At that point, he moved back in with his first wife.
When he told her he had gotten remarried while they were apart, she told him she had never divorced him, according to court records.
Hornak reached out to an attorney who told him that his second marriage was null and void because he was already married at the time and there was an issue with the second woman’s Social Security number, according to court records.
Police said there were valid marriage licenses for both marriages and Hornak had never divorced.
Detectives from state police major crimes obtained an arrest warrant for Hornak on July 16. He turned himself in to Troop H and was released on a promise to appear.
Hornak could not be reached for comment early Thursday, the Associated Press reports. He has an unlisted phone number.
Hornak was originally scheduled to be in court on Thursday, but did not appear. The judge granted a continuance to Aug. 23 so Hornak can retain an attorney.
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