East Texas man told to get married or go to jail

A man in East Texas was recently faced with a peculiar dilemma: go to jail or get married to his girlfriend.

Last month Josten Bundy of Chandler was forced to marry his 19-year-old girlfriend Elizabeth Jaynes or face 15 days of jail time.

More pessimistic people may say that this was a “lose-lose” decision.

Back in February Bundy got into a fight with Jaynes’ ex-boyfriend after the ex had said rude things about Jaynes. Defending her honor, Bundy punched him in the jaw a couple of times. The ex-boyfriend later filed assault charges, although he didn’t require medical attention.

When the criminal case reached the sentencing phase the presiding judge asked Bundy to make a decision. He could spend 15 days in jail or marry Jaynes. It was his choice.

Judge Randall Rogers asked Bundy if Jaynes was worth the fight, according to KLTV-TV. If she was worth fighting for, she was surely worth marrying, his logic went.

The pair was given 30 days to get hitched so they applied for a marriage license and made a date with the local justice of the peace to perform the hasty ceremony.

The bride complained that she didn’t get to have the special day that she wanted and the couple was dismayed that they couldn’t have their families present for the ceremony.

In photos posted to Bundy’s Facebook page the pair can be seen smiling just after the ceremony.

They do plan to do it up right once they have saved enough money, according to KLTV-TV.

A constitutional law attorney told reporters that a court order to get married is actually illegal and had Bundy chose to instead go to jail a higher court would have likely thrown out the judge’s ruling.

“It sounds like the old days of shotgun weddings, but not even the judge is capable of enforcing, what he thinks is best for some people in his court,” attorney Blake Bailey said.