TambaBay.com and All Headline News has reported that a Port Richey bride was arrested immediately after she completed exchanging vows at her wedding ceremony on Saturday, July 16, for an outstanding warrant of felony identity theft.
Police officers received a tip on T.L.H.'s location, the City of Zion Ministries Church in Jackson, Michigan, and laid in wait for her at the church's back exit so they could make their arrest.
T.L.H., 50, was wanted for two years for using her son's name for utility debts.
Jon Johnston, the deputy director of the Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety, said, "They let her finish getting married and then placed her under arrest."
In 2009 T.L.H. allegedly used her computer to charge up nearly $3,000 in utility bills under her son's name. Her son, W.K., was 17 at the time.
When W.K. later applied for his own line of credit he discovered the outstanding debts that had accrued against him.
T.L.H.'s former husband, J.K., said that W.K. then searched through his mother's bills -
finding several that were in his name instead of hers.
After the identity theft was discovered, per J.K., T.L.H. fled to Florida.
K.K., W.K.'s stepmother, said, "I don't see how a mother can do that to her own son. (W.K.) is a wonderful child. He's financially making it in this economy with his girlfriend, and they're in the process of buying a house."
The family had guessed that T.L.H. moved to Florida to marry another man. When that marriage ended a few years later, T.L.H. allegedly met another man and came to Michigan to get married.
A post office box in Port Richey is listed on the arrest report as T.L.H.'s current address.
On that same Saturday, July 16, before T.L.H. could change out of her wedding gown she was booked at the Jackson County jail. She was able to return to her own wedding reception - allegedly less than an hour later - when the judge allowed her to post a $5,000 bail.
Blackman Township Public Safety Officer, Rick Gillespie, said that T.L.H.'s new husband picked her up from the jail.
Johnson said, "She made it back to the later part of her reception with a court date scheduled for Monday."
T.L.H. failed to return on Monday for her arraignment and officers renewed their search for her.
She was picked up again on Tuesday, July 19, on another tip. This time T.L.H. was arrested as she was being released from the Allegiance Health hospital.
This is not her first public arrest.
T.L.H. was arrested in 1998 for kidnapping her son and taking him to Florida, without telling J.K. - the couple had been divorced for many years. She was arrested during another event: her family reunion.
In that incident, T.L.H. pleaded guilty for attempting misdemeanor
kidnapping and interfering with custody.
If you have been charged for criminal acts, contact a criminal defense attorney for help. Your arrest may be the worst of what you have to face alone.
