Three Husbands And A Conspiracy Claim Judge Tosses Claim By Much-Married Woman

A woman who had two husbands at the same time was blown out of court when she laid out a conspiracy claim involving a supposed third husband.

Although she demanded $1 million, Kettle Falls resident Linda J. Erickson told visiting Superior Court Judge Phillip Borst of Lincoln County that all she really wanted was protection from the people plotting her death.

The suspected plotters include a host of public officials and several bystanders.

Erickson said the principal offenders are former “husband” Eric Svare; his Colville attorney, John Troberg, and Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor, who refused to grant the divorce Erickson sought from Svare.

O’Connor found in April 1993 that Svare and Erickson were never legally married.

Instead of breaking up the alleged conspiracy, Borst prohibited Erickson from harassing the defendants with any more frivolous lawsuits and liens.

Borst also ordered Erickson on Thursday to pay the defendants’ legal costs: more than $6,500 and still growing.

O’Connor ruled there was no need to grant Erickson a divorce from Svare because the couple never got a marriage license. They just said some vows in front of one of Erickson’s friends in 1987.

Still, Erickson insists she remains married to Svare.

That didn’t stop her from marrying a developmentally disabled Ferry County man, who had inherited some property, in August 1993. Erickson got a license that time and the marriage was as legal as a marriage can be when a woman already has a husband or two.

The new marriage was quickly annulled, and the retarded man’s relatives sought a guardianship for him.

Svare reported in an August 1995 court document that he had just discovered Erickson had yet another husband in King County, a man named Thomas Greene. He questioned whether she was guilty of bigamy.

But Erickson may soon have no husband if Greene gets the divorce he is seeking.

Erickson told a King County Superior Court in May she thought she was already divorced from Greene. About the same time, Erickson charged in a public document that Troberg, Svare and “their fellow conspirators” were “plotting to take my life in order to obtain my property.” As proof, she cited a newspaper advertisement in which Svare disclaimed responsibility for her debts.

Among numerous offenses, Erickson contended Troberg was guilty of “slander of woman” under a 1909 state law prohibiting speech that would injure a woman’s reputation for chastity. However, the law, which is still on the books, does not protect “a common prostitute.”

Erickson blames Troberg for her dismissal as manager of the Northeast Tri-County Fair on grounds she lied about her 1985 conviction in King County for second-degree promoting prostitution.

“That’s a matter of record,” she told Borst, “but it’s also a matter of record that King County took me to court three times before they could convict me.”

Borst rejected all of Erickson’s allegations against Troberg, Svare and Judge O’Connor. He also quashed Erickson’s lien against the personal property of Stevens County’s two regular Superior Court judges, the prosecutor and two county commissioners.

Erickson blamed the public officials for failure to act on her complaints.

, DataTimes