Man Accused of Being Married to 3 Women Pleads Innocent to Bigamy

A Simi Valley man allegedly married to three women at the same time pleaded not guilty Wednesday to bigamy and an extra charge of intimidating a witness by allegedly threatening to kill his third wife after she reported him to authorities.

Lloyd Leon Wetzel, 29, stood glumly in Ventura County Municipal Court wearing jail blues and a downcast expression as Sandra Lemich, the wife who turned him in, looked on.

Lemich and Wetzel were married in January, but she soon became suspicious that her husband was a bigamist and notified the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, whose deputies arrested Wetzel on Monday.

During Wetzel’s arraignment Wednesday afternoon, his court-appointed attorney said his client adamantly denies the felony charges.

If convicted, Wetzel faces up to four years and eight months in state prison.

Deputy Public Defender Nicholas Falcone asked Judge Steven Hintz to release his client on the grounds that he is a lifelong county resident with no minor criminal record.

Wetzel was arrested in 1992 on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon, but the charge was dismissed, court officials said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Audry Rohn told the court that Wetzel is a potentially dangerous individual and a flight risk.

“He has threatened to kill her,” Rohn said. “The people urge the court to keep the bail at $200,000.”

Hintz, however, set bail at $50,000 without explanation and ordered Wetzel to have no contact with his third wife.

Sitting in the back of the courtroom, Wetzel’s mother nodded her head in approval as the ruling was handed down. Lemich, 46, of Moorpark, walked out of the courtroom amid a cluster of news cameras.

“I am really disappointed that the bail got lowered,” she said in the hallway outside after the arraignment. “He said he was going to kill me in front of a bunch of other people.”

Contacted at home later Wednesday afternoon, Lemich said that Wetzel had confronted her at a country western bar in the San Fernando Valley a few weeks before the arrest.

“He said, ‘Stay away or I will kill you,’ ” she said. Lemich also said that Wetzel told her: “There is no bigamy.”

But authorities say marriage records show that Wetzel was married to three women at the same time.

Det. Ron Nelson said Wetzel married Bonita Hoffman of Newbury Park in 1987.

Within months, Wetzel then married his second wife, Guadalupe Diaz of Sylmar, Nelson said.

Authorities say they are investigating whether Wetzel married the women to swindle them out of money.

Wetzel is scheduled to appear for a pretrial hearing Nov. 13.