--- title: Texas Judge Orders Man to Marry Girlfriend or Go to Jail description: A judge offered a highly unusual sentence canonical: https://time.com/3989746/judge-orders-man-marry-girlfriend/ author: Victor Luckerson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-08T15:21:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:11.205Z og:title: Judge Orders Man to Marry Girlfriend or Face Jail Time og:description: Texas judge offers a highly unusual sentencing og:url: https://time.com/3989746/judge-orders-man-marry-girlfriend/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt477fe7d562b8df2f/69869826adae445646543c0a/171096033.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4828 og:image:height: 2716 og:image:alt: 171096033 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Judge Orders Man to Marry Girlfriend or Face Jail Time twitter:description: Texas judge offers a highly unusual sentencing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt477fe7d562b8df2f/69869826adae445646543c0a/171096033.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Judge Orders Man to Marry Girlfriend or Face Jail Time > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Aug 8, 2015 3:21 PM UTC  Judge holding gavel in courtroom Judge holding gavel in courtroom Getty Images by [Victor Luckerson](https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Aug 8, 2015 3:21 PM UTC A judge in east Texas ordered a 21-year-old man to [marry his girlfriend](http://www.kltv.com/story/29721876/judge-sentences-east-texas-man-to-get-married-or-face-jail-time) as part of his probation sentence. Josten Bundy was being sentenced for assault charges stemming from a fight he had with the ex-boyfriend of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Jaynes, according to KLTV. Court transcripts show that Smith County judge Randall Rogers told Bundy he could either serve 15 days in jail or marry his girlfriend within 30 days. Bundy told KLTV that the judge wouldn’t let him call his job to tell them he’d be unavailable for two weeks. Fearing losing the job, he agreed to marry Jaynes and the two tied the knot in a courthouse by the judge’s deadline. “My father didn’t get to go, and that really bothers me,” Bundy told KLTV. “None of my sisters got to show up, it was such short notice, I couldn’t get it together.” An attorney specializing in constitutional law said the sentence was not legal and likely would have been struck down during an appeal in a higher court. \[[_KLTV_](http://www.kltv.com/story/29721876/judge-sentences-east-texas-man-to-get-married-or-face-jail-time)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3989746/judge-orders-man-marry-girlfriend/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3989746/judge-orders-man-marry-girlfriend/"},"headline":"Judge Orders Man to Marry Girlfriend or Face Jail Time","datePublished":"2015-08-08T15:21:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:11.205Z","description":"Texas judge offers a highly unusual sentencing","url":"https://time.com/3989746/judge-orders-man-marry-girlfriend/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Texas","Crime","Marriage","U.S."],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt477fe7d562b8df2f/69869826adae445646543c0a/171096033.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt477fe7d562b8df2f/69869826adae445646543c0a/171096033.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"171096033","caption":"171096033","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3989746/judge-orders-man-marry-girlfriend/","name":"Judge Orders Man to Marry Girlfriend or Face Jail Time"}}]}] ```