Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993 TAG: 9309300267
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Janice Gallimore, 42, plans to file for divorce from her husband in Pulaski County Circuit Court, said her attorney, Max Jenkins.
Jenkins declined to specify the grounds until the papers are filed. "It's pretty obvious," he said.
In January, when authorities in Henry and Floyd counties began investigating Gallimore, 44, for suspected bigamy, conducting marriages without a license and taking indecent liberties with a child, he contended that his legal wife, Janice, accepted his second marriage.
When Gallimore was charged in Floyd County with taking indecent liberties with a minor and seduction, Janice Gallimore stood by him. She stood arm-in-arm with him through several court appearances, and was photographed many times holding hands with Gallimore's informal wife, Floyd County High School student Sabrina Simpkins.
But Janice Gallimore's family always claimed she was a prisoner of the arrangement. "It's forced on her," her father, Cabble Turman, had said.
And even Elwood Gallimore admitted that when he told his wife in December that he had married Simpkins, the news "hit her in the face pretty much." Janice Gallimore's relatives said the news of her husband's marriage "in the eyes of God" to Simpkins sent her to Pulaski Community Hospital for two days to be treated for "nerves."
Before the minister's trial this spring, Janice Gallimore left her husband. But Gallimore persuaded her to try to patch things up and the separation lasted only a day or two.
Gallimore was cleared of the seduction and taking indecent liberties with a minor charges in June. Since then, members at his tiny Bassett Forks church have continued hearing him preach his favorite sermon - the sanctity of polygamy.
by CNB