Man sentenced to 3 years in bigamy case

Nita Johnson, The Sentinel Echo, London, Ky.
·1 min read

Sep. 20—A London man will serve three years in prison for being married to more than one woman at the same time.

Keith Allen Tanner, 41, of Pepperhill Apartments in London, appeared before Laurel Circuit Judge Michael O. Caperton last week for formal sentencing on the charge of bigamy.

Tanner was indicted by a Laurel grand jury in October for "purporting" to marry one woman while he was actually still married to someone else — thus constituting the bigamy charge. The indictment also charged Tanner with forging a male's name on a marriage license and signing the name of a female on a marriage license (second-degree forgery). With prior felony convictions, he was also indicted for first-degree persistent felony offender.

Other charges in the indictment were dismissed, but notations on the court docket state that Tanner's three-year prison sentence from this charge will run consecutively — or after — a Letcher County, KY conviction.

In that case, Tanner was convicted of bigamy in July and sentenced to two and a half years.

This is not Tanner's first go-round with bigamy charges. Records indicate that he has been charged with bigamy three prior times — the most recent being in Elkhart, Indiana in 2015. He was charged with bigamy and giving false information on a marriage license there.

He was also arrested in Laurel County in 2014 on charges of being a fugitive, bigamy and other counts involving fighting with police officers.

Tanner was also previously convicted of bigamy in Laurel County in 2005 and Madison County, Kentucky in 2014.