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Serial bride headed for slammer

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Serial bride headed for slammer


NEW YORK (CNN) --A woman who became a serial bride of sorts, saying "I do" over and over and over again for money, now faces a prison stretch for lying about her multiple marriages.

While filing her 27th marriage certificate, Dezerrie Cortes, 40, failed to mention her previous marriages -- all to men from other countries willing to pay money and go through the motions of entering wedlock to secure legal status as U.S. residents.

Cortes pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court in Manhattan Tuesday to one count of offering a false instrument for filing. She was sentenced to six months in prison and five years of probation.

Between 1984 and 2002, Cortes married men from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Pakistan for sums of money ranging from $500 to thousands of dollars. In return her grooms were able to obtain their green cards and other benefits.

"Apparently this is the way she supplemented her income," said Sherry Hunter, a spokeswoman for the State Supreme Court in Manhattan. "She applied for 27 marriage licenses in all of New York's boroughs, except Staten Island, but not all of them were completed."

Hunter said it's known that Cortes did get married more than 20 times but she could not say if she had divorced any of the short-lived spouses.







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http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/08/serial…


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