The Denny Hecker saga has turned from greed and avarice to ... love?
A marriage license surfaced Wednesday suggesting that jailed auto mogul Denny Hecker and his now jailed bride, Christi Rowan, tied the knot last week in what appears to be a "wedding by proxy."
The marriage certificate was signed by both parties on Feb. 22, just one day before Rowan herself was jailed for allegedly spending more of Hecker's money in violation of a court order.
But inmates are not allowed to have visitors in person at the Sherburne County jail. They visit by phone in front of a television monitor on the other side of the jail.
"He got married by proxy. In almost 30 years of practicing family law, I have never heard of marriage by proxy. I was stunned by it. It's not a legal concept I am aware of," said Becky Toevs Rooney, the attorney who represented Hecker's fourth ex-wife, Tamitha, in her 2009 divorce from Hecker. If the latest marriage is valid, Rowan would be Hecker's fifth wife.
"I understand that the county attorney is investigating it," Toevs Rooney said. "The question I have is, 'Is this meaningless or does this mean he has broken the law somehow?'"
Reached late Wednesday, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said his office has been swarmed with calls on the matter.
A "quick look at the law [revealed] that you do have to be in each other's presence," Freeman said. And it is unclear if a video camera, pastor and witnesses on either end of a phone would constitute being "in the presence" of each other.