Minister Admits Bigamy, Pleads Guilty

INDIANAPOLIS -- A minister pleaded guilty Thursday to bigamy, admitting to a Marion Superior Court judge that he was still married to one woman when he married another in 2005.

Spencer Osborne, 36, said that his divorce from his first wife wasn't finalized until months after the second marriage happened.

Prosecutors had accused Osborne of marrying a third woman last November while he was still married to his second wife, but the guilty plea only involves the 2005 marriages.

Court documents showed that Osborne married Tonya Washington in September 1999 and Gidget Harris in February 2005. He was divorced from Washington in June 2005 and married Hope Tucker in November 2007.

Tucker, who was at a court hearing in September, said she didn't know about the other wives and was shocked by "all of it."

Osborne was an assistant pastor with New Covenant Free Will Baptist Church before his arrest on Sept. 21.

Osborne is in the Marion County Jail awaiting sentencing on Oct. 20. Under an agreement with prosecutors, he will face a maximum of six months in jail.

The minister is also wanted in Kentucky, where he is accused of failing to pay nearly $60,000 in child support for two children.

In 1993, Osborne was convicted of molesting a 7-year-old Indianapolis girl.