Wives appear on the Dr. Phil Show and Ed Hicks gets arrested
On December 12, 2005, both Sandra and Julie appeared on the Dr. Phil Show . The Ed Hicks case was one of two profiled on the show-the other was about a man already in prison.
On the show, Julie stated she lost her car and had been forced into bankruptcy because Ed stopped paying the bills. Sandra said being involved with Ed cost her about $50,000.
A Dr. Phil reporter and camera crew had cornered Ed as he left work, and a clip was aired on the show. “What about the allegations that you’re a bigamist?” the reporter asked.
Ed’s answer, broadcast to 10 million viewers: “That’s fine.”
Ed Hicks arrested after show
Linda Hembree of Shelby, North Carolina, is an avid Dr. Phil Show fan, and was watching it on December 12. She was shocked to realize that the man profiled on the show, Ed Hicks, was dating her sister. In fact, he had recently proposed.
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Linda called her sister, Barbara Grant, and said Hicks was married, but Barbara didn’t believe her. “Well, honey,” Linda said, “turn on Dr. Phil.
The women called the police and Hicks was arrested by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. Because he was an out-of-state fugitive, bail was set at $25,000.
Arrested again
At a hearing on December 22, 2005, a judge in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, refused to lower the $25,000 secured bond for Hicks. The bigamist remained in custody and then was transferred to the jail in Chesapeake, Virginia, on December 30.
On January 7, 2006, a Virginia magistrate reduced bail for Hicks to $5,000. A bondsman posted the required 10%-just $500. Hicks was out of jail.
The next morning, Hicks was back in North Carolina at the apartment of Barbara Grant, attempting to kick down her door. Barbara called the police. He then tried to get a locksmith to make a key for his van, which was still parked outside Barbara’s apartment. Later that afternoon, Hicks was arrested again.
Ed Hicks on trial
Ed Hicks pleaded guilty to bigamy in a Chesapeake, Virginia courtroom on March 2, 2006. He sat in jail until his sentencing on May 8.
On that day, Hicks appeared in court wearing his blue jailbird jumpsuit and flip flops with socks. Also present were Sandra, Julie and two other Virginia women that Hicks had dated while married.
Julie testified about the emotional abuse she suffered. She related how on September 11, 2001, she and his teenaged children spent the day wondering if Hicks was dead or alive because he sometimes worked at the Pentagon. When Julie got home from work, there was a message on the answering machine. “He tells me this big elaborate story, about how he was going by the Pentagon when it was hit, and that he had to report to Fort Belvoir and could only make one call out, so he called the house instead of work in case I’d gone home,” she said. “I later find out that the whole time he was watching it on TV at Sandra’s house.”
Sandra testified that she had to refinance her house to cover $50,000 in credit card debt Hicks accumulated. Hicks, however, denied that he created any financial problems. “As far as running up credit card debt on anyone or anything else, that is not so,” he told the judge.
“He showed absolutely no remorse,” Sandra says.
Year in prison
Hicks was sentenced to five years in prison, with four years suspended, so that means a one-year term in a Virginia state prison. He received credit for the four months he already spent in jail. After release from prison, Hicks will be on supervised probation for a year.
Sandra and Julie consider the sentence to be a victory. “We had been told to be prepared for him to walk out the door,” Julie says. “He’s already served more time than most people do for this crime.”
According to state sentencing guidelines, Hicks would have been eligible for probation. But the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Circuit Judge S. Bernard Goodwin said he decided to exceed the guidelines because of the recklessness with which Hicks pursued matrimony.
Two days later, on May 10, 2006, Sandra received her divorce from Ed Hicks.
More on Ed Hicks
For more information on Ed Hicks and bigamy, visit the Fight Bigamy blog.