Cañon City – Willis Rouse says he’s a husband and father, not a child molester.
Now that the Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that common-law marriages can be valid in Colorado, he believes a judge should set him free.
“I think they should let me go home and take care of my responsibilities,” Rouse, 38, said Thursday during an interview at the Fremont Correctional Facility, referring to caring for his son and the woman he claims he married when she was 14.
He said he wept when he learned of the appellate judge’s decision and credited his success to diligently studying law books three hours every Thursday and to prayer.
“I’m not a Bible thumper, but I think God helped me,” Rouse said. “In my opinion, I simply won because it’s the law and the judge upheld the law.”
Rouse is serving a four-year prison term after pleading guilty to stalking the girl he says he married. He was originally charged with sexual assault by someone in a position of trust. He is due for release in 2008.
The Colorado Court of Appeals last week sent his case back to Weld County District Court to determine whether Rouse’s union with “JMH” qualifies as a common-law marriage.
On Monday, Rouse, who has filed dozens of briefs on his own behalf, filed a request for a hearing in the Greeley courthouse.
“I’m going to ask the judge for the world,” Rouse said. “I’ll take whatever he gives me.”
He wants his conviction overturned because he had a “constitutional” right to have consensual sex with his wife, he said.
He said he will ask the judge to lift the restraining order that forbids him from having any contact with JMH because she was his victim.
In an interview Thursday with The Denver Post, JMH said she anxiously awaits his release from prison so they can raise their 3-year-old boy together.
There are at least two major roadblocks.
Adams County District Attorney Don Quick said Thursday he will fight any effort by Rouse to get out of prison.
And Gail Young, 36, says she is Rouse’s common-law wife and they are still married.
Rouse said he was never married to Young and described his relationship with her as an on-again, off-again union.
But Young points out Rouse filed for divorce but went to prison before it was completed.
Rouse denied that Thursday, but according to Adams District Court records, he filed for divorce Jan. 12, 1994. He was convicted in 1995 on drug charges and sentenced to eight years.
In 1997, the divorce file was destroyed for “lack of progress,” according to district court records.
Rouse’s relationship with JMH, then 14, began in 2003 at his uncle’s house. She was his uncle’s girlfriend’s daughter.
“She was running wild,” Rouse said. “… I wanted to help her. … I think all she needed was someone who believed in her.”
But he said their relationship evolved into something more. He knew their age difference was a problem, and he researched common-law rules.
“We decided we needed to be married,” he said. “It was never something that was ugly.”
He said they obtained spoken permission from JMH’s father and written permission from her mother, then JMH moved in with him. They formalized the union May 15, 2003, when the two filed an “affidavit of common-law marriage,” according to a copy of the document in Adams County District Court. JMH was 15.
But when the couple kicked her mother out of her apartment for smoking crack, JMH’s mother called police and accused Rouse of sexually assaulting her daughter, Rouse said.
Rouse said lawmakers should pass a law prohibiting young girls from marrying.
“It’s going to get changed as sure as the sun goes up tomorrow,” he said. “An adult should not have sex with a 12-year-old.”
Most 14-year-olds shouldn’t have sex, either, he said. But he said some, like JMH, are ready.
He added: “You have to see where people are coming from.”
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
