March 3, 2000

Detroit News
By Katie Merx
Metro Section

Man has 12 wives, cops say

Livonia resident is charged with polygamy, larceny, theft in a nationwide crime spree!

By Katie Merx / The Detroit News

LIVONIA -- A Livonia man -- with eight aliases and even more wives -- was charged Thursday with polygamy and larceny.

He also stands accused of bigamy, larceny and theft in at least nine other states.

Police arrested Bobby Joe Sexton in his mother's apartment at Ziegler Place senior apartments this week, after he applied for a driver's license and tags using the same alias -- Robert Lynn Norris -- that he used Feb. 9 to marry a Dundee woman.

Police claim Sexton -- whose various birth date claims make him 59, 60 or 62 -- is married to at least a dozen women whom he swindled and left.

"He's a con artist," said Cathie Glynn of the Port Royal, S.C., Police Department, where Sexton is wanted for bigamy and grand larceny.

Sexton, who has a lengthy rap sheet and once served time in Jackson State Prison, is in the Monroe County jail, held under a $750,000 bond. His history of trouble with the law dates to 1968.

This time around, he's been on the lam from police and a string of swindled wives for more than a year, said Sandi Waite, the Dundee woman who police believe was Sexton's most recent wife.

"He'd go to veterans' clubs, Moose lodges, one present wife even met him in church," Waite said. "I met him at our local Vets club. He claimed to be an ex-POW in my case. He claimed to be retired from the Navy after 32 years. He showed a picture and a letter that said he was a prisoner of war for three years, four months and 11 days. The letter said he won a purple heart and silver stars, or whatever. The picture he used was from a play where he played a naval officer."

Sexton left Waite on Feb. 16. He took a video camera and her personal checks when he left, Waite said. He's accused of doing the same thing to women in Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas and West Virginia, Monroe County Sheriff's Detective Mark Kachar said.

"From talking to the other women, he would stay from one week to three months, depending on how much there was to take," Waite said.

Surprisingly, Waite said, she's not angry.

"I think he came into my life because somebody had to stop him, and I was the one who could do it," Waite said.

"He's very clever. He knows the right things to say. When I tried to check him out and couldn't, he said it was because he'd been in the special forces. He knew how to play the system. With me, he took checks and a camcorder. With other people, he took credit cards, checks, property and cash."

One wife accused him of swindling her out of $100,000.

Kachar said they have no idea just how many women Sexton may have married, swindled and left. He's hoping any other victims will come forward. Sexton's aliases include Franklin Berry, Robert Jones, Robert Lee Palmer, Bobby J. Sexton, Franklin Robert Berry, Robert Palmer, Jones Robert and Joe Sexton.

March 6, 2000

Fraud Suspect Has Many Wives, Cops Say Police Find Four, Suspect Seven More

March 6, 2000

By Janet Prasad

MONROE, Mich. (APBnews.com) -- When Bobby Joe Sexton got married last month, he and his new wife started planning to buy a home together.

A week later, the same day they planned to look at a home for sale, Sexton allegedly disappeared with some of his spouse's cameras. His new wife contacted police, only to find out she was one of many wives Sexton had been accumulating over the last couple of years,
authorities said.

Michigan investigators say they know of at least four other women living in Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee who claim to be Sexton's wives, but they believe there are even more women that Sexton has married and left.

'He's a smooth talker'

"He's a smooth talker. He portrays himself as a Navy veteran," said Monroe County sheriff's Detective Mark Kachar, who has spoken with four of Sexton's wives. "They met him, they admired him. He's a very good-looking guy. They married him."

Sexton spent his time in veteran's clubs, which is where he met his most recent wife, Kachar said. Sexton, 62, is being held in the Monroe County Jail under $750,000 bond, authorities said. He is facing one count of bigamy in Monroe County, said Assistant Prosecutor Jack Simms.

Sexton married his latest wife, a 57-year-old bride, Feb. 9 at the Monroe County Courthouse and by Feb. 16 he was gone, police said.

"Where he takes off to, nobody knows," Kachar said.

Latest wife very 'upset'

After his new wife contacted police, investigators found Sexton had applied for a Michigan driver's license Feb. 23, which listed his mother's address in Lavonia, a suburb of Detroit.

Once his wife identified him in a driver's license photo faxed to the sheriff's department, Lavonia police arrested Sexton at the listed address -- a retirement home.

"She's fighting emotions of, not only being upset -- and really, no doubt, had fallen in love with this guy -- but she's fighting emotions of people thinking she's this naive woman blindly jumping into something," Kachar said.

Police seized Sexton's pickup truck, detailed with Veterans of Foreign Wars symbols on the doors and a front license plate from Florida that said "Jesus," Kachar said.

Used alias from singer

Sexton was listed in Monroe County court records as Robert Lynn Norris, an alias he reportedly used in Texas, Kachar said. He also has used the aliases Jones Robert and Robert Palmer, he said.

"Remember that song 'Addicted to Love' by Robert Palmer?" Kachar said. "Addicted to love. Poor guy."

Sexton received a marriage license in Beaufort County, S.C., March 24, 1999; in Broward County, Fla., Dec. 30, 1998; and in Columbia County, Ark., July 26, 1999, authorities said. Port Royal, S.C., police also are investigating Sexton and may know of more women who married him, Kachar said. Port Royal police did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The Monroe County investigation is ongoing, Kachar said. When Sexton's case is finished in Michigan, he is scheduled to appear next in a South Carolina court. Sexton is also wanted in Arizona, Florida, Tennessee and Texas on various larceny and fraud charges, Kachar said.

Search for the wives

Investigators are looking for women who they believe married Sexton. Kachar said he recently received a call from a woman who said she dated a man named Bobby Joe Sexton in 1963, had a child with him and that they had lived with his mother in Lavonia. One day, she said,
Sexton left for work and never came back, Kachar said.

Anyone with information regarding Sexton is asked to contact Kachar at Mark_Kachar@monroemi.org.

Janet Prasad is an APBnews.com correspondent in Illinois.