Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993 TAG: 9301280062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
PREACHER'S DEFENSE BIBLICAL
Elwood Gallimore, as he has said all along, told a Floyd County judge Wednesday that he didn't need a lawyer to defend him on charges related to his "marriage" to a second wife.Instead, he said he would use the Bible, and its citations of men who had hundreds of wives, to defend himself in court.
Gallimore, 44, the minister of a Martinsville-area church, stepped outside the courthouse and spent 20 minutes answering questions from the news media.
Would 16-year-old Sabrina Simpkins, a Floyd County High School student whom Gallimore "married" last month, move in with Gallimore and his legal wife, Janice?
"That's the plans I had to start with," he said. "Everybody says, `How's life with two women?' Well, I don't know yet; I haven't had time to find out."
Gallimore last week was charged with two felonies: seduction and taking indecent liberties with a minor.
Simpkins' parents, Clark and Brenda Simpkins, also waived their right to an attorney. The Simpkinses are charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, for allegedly allowing Gallimore and their daughter to have sex in their Floyd County home.
Since it was made public that authorities were investigating Gallimore, his story has been told nationally. Last week, he was featured on the tabloid television show "Hard Copy." Wednesday, he was in The Washington Post.
Gallimore said all the fuss results from one thing: Simpkins' age.
"They're old enough they can get behind the wheel of a vehicle when they're 16," he said. "If she's old enough to decide to marry a 16-year-old boy, she's old enough to decide to marry a 44-year-old man."
Janice Gallimore, Gallimore's wife of 26 years, went to court with him. Her parents, Cabble and Betty Turman, say Gallimore had not allowed his wife to talk to them since the controversy started.
The Turmans stood in the hall of the courthouse Wednesday, hoping to get a few words with their daughter. They were upbeat afterward because they had succeeded.
"I hugged her when she went by," Betty Turman said. "I told her I loved her. I whispered in her ear that I'd been praying for her."
Asked before the hearing if her husband's taking a second "wife" had been difficult for her, Janice Gallimore said "No."
Asked to elaborate, she turned to her husband and said, "I'm going in."
The Turmans still think the situation was forced upon their daughter. Cabble Turman pointed out that Gallimore held onto his wife's arm the whole time.
"I just wanted to see her and see how she looked," Turman said. "She looked better than he did. It's getting to him a little bit, I think."