Bigamist avoids jail, gains debt

Jeffrey Scott, now a felon, must pay nearly $12, 000 in restitution.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published June 23, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - Jeffrey Scott has married along two oceans, the Pacific and Atlantic.

They were unions separated by time and distance - but not, unfortunately, by divorce.

Jeffrey Scott wed Junko Segawa in 1997. They met in Japan and moved to Florida, where it all fell apart. She returned to Japan as a married woman. Scott tied the knot again, this time with Nicole Ames in 2005 - but he was already a married man.

It's called bigamy, and Scott came to court Friday to be sentenced for his crime against the two women.

They were not his only victims.

Dillan Ames was the boy Scott adopted during his second marriage - an adoption that was annulled when his deception was revealed.

He's 10 now and in therapy, his mother's lawyer said, thanks to his former father.

"Dillan may never trust an adult male role model again, " said attorney Dan Rasmussen. "I wouldn't call Scott a man. He taught (Dillan) that a man manipulates, lies and is unfaithful."

To resolve the third-degree felony charge of bigamy, Scott agreed to an adjudication of guilt, five years of probation and nearly $12, 000 in restitution.

His burden includes: the $1, 100 left on the legal bill for annulling the adoption, $3, 200 for his former son's therapy and $7, 000 to Ames' parents for the wedding they paid for.

The 33-year-old also has to perform 200 hours of community service. And he has to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

He declined to comment after the hearing.

Scott's arrest already cost him his job as a volunteer firefighter in Port Richey. He came to court hoping to avoid jail and a felony conviction. With no previous criminal record that wouldn't have been hard.

Ames, 31, had her marriage to Scott annulled in 2006. But on Friday she didn't want to let her former husband off the hook that easily.

"There is so much shame in that knowing the whole time we were, quote-unquote, married, that in reality I was laying in bed with another woman's husband, " she told the judge. "He embarrassed me in front of family and friends."

Then Circuit Judge Thane Covert started talking about house arrest in a private bench conference with the lawyers. That would have cost Scott his job as a machinist, said his defense attorney, Pete Proly.

To avoid that, his client made a plea deal with his former wife: He would pay thousands in restitution and become a convicted felon.

Ames first fell for Scott when they attended Gulf High School together. They reconnected in 2002 - unbeknownst to Ames, while Scott's Japanese wife was still living with him in Spring Hill.

But Ames knew Scott had gotten married. "It didn't work out, " he told her.

"The first words out of his mouth, " Ames said, "were just lies."

For now, she's his only former wife. Legally, he's still married to Junko Scott, who lives in Japan but has hired Ames' Pasco divorce lawyer to represent her.

The first wife is working on becoming Scott's second former wife.

Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6236.

[Last modified June 22, 2007, 20:07:32]