A Washington state jailer whose wife discovered through Facebook that he had married a second woman has pleaded guilty to attempted bigamy.

Alan O'Neill, 42, of Graham, was charged in March after his first wife learned of his second wife through a Facebook "people you may know" notification and alerted authorities.

The second woman's profile photo showed her with O'Neill, dressed up and standing near a wedding cake, The Tacoma News Tribune reported Friday.

O'Neill, who was accompanied to court Thursday by the second woman, told Superior Court Judge Beverly Grant he never meant to commit a crime.

"I've never done anything intentionally wrong in my life," he said.

O'Neill was spared jail time but will be on probation for a year. The charge is a gross misdemeanor.

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He has annulled his second marriage and is divorcing his first wife.

O’Neill married his first wife in 2001, when he was known as Alan Fulk, The News Tribune reported in March. The couple split up eight years later, but the pair never divorced, the newspaper reported. Last December, he reportedly petitioned to have his name changed to O’Neill before marrying his second wife.

O'Neill's first wife seems to have forgiven him. She wrote a letter of support, saying that the media coverage has been enough punishment.

Related: Man charged with bigamy after wives' Facebook encounter

"He just made a bad decision that hurt a few people's feelings and (brought) embarrassment to himself," she wrote.

O'Neill's lawyer, Philip Thornton, told the judge his client tried to get a divorce from his first wife before he married the second one. O'Neill trusted a neighbor to process his divorce through Lincoln County, but the neighbor didn't file the paperwork, Thornton said.

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"Mr. O'Neill failed to follow through on that," Thornton said. "He is extremely embarrassed and remorseful."

O'Neill's future as a Pierce County corrections officer remains in question.

He is on unpaid leave. Sheriff Paul Pastor, who oversees the jail, will evaluate the results of an internal affairs investigation before deciding whether to allow O'Neill, on the job for five years, to come back to work, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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After a deliberating for less than an hour, a Texas jury found Wendell Loy Nielsen, a lieutenant of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, guilty of three counts of bigamy. He faces up to 10 years in prison for each count.

Nielsen was accused of marrying three women in 2006 when they were 43, 58 and 65.

Nielsen, 71, is one of a dozen men with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints charged with bigamy after the 2008 raid of the sect’s Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas. The sect, which has about 10,000 followers, broke off with the Mormon church in the 1880s over whether to ban polygamy.  

Prosecutors said in opening arguments that Nielsen violated Texas bigamy laws because he lived with more than one woman and claimed to be married to them all. He allegedly had 35 wives, although he was charged with just three counts of bigamy.

The issue put to the jury of five women and seven men was whether “spiritual” or “celestial” marriages are true marriages under Texas law. Bigamy, rarely charged in the United States, is illegal in most western countries. Most cases involve someone marrying someone in the U.S., unaware that their marriage in a previous country was still valid.

Defense lawyer David Botsford said the state could not prove that celestial marriage violates the law, as usually only the first wife has a marriage license.  

"Apply the law and the facts that the judge gives you,” Botsford said. “Those marriages are spiritual unions."

Of the dozen male members of the sect were charged, 10 were convicted including Warren Jeffs. Jeffs was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old he took in as a bride in what his church deemed a “spiritual marriage.” Ten of those men have been convicted.

Tony Gutierrez / AP

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he took in as a bride.

Jeffs is now in protective custody at a prison in Palestine, Texas. He still exerts his authority and sends out prophetic messages to public officials. He has also taken out advertisements in newspapers throughout the country.

Nielsen had been the president of the sect’s corporation in Utah until Jeffs took over again in 2011.

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A Seattle-area corrections officer has been charged with bigamy after his two wives learned about each other on Facebook, prosecutors say.

Alan O’Neill, 41, married his first wife in 2001, when he was known as Alan Fulk, according to The News Tribune of Tacoma.  The couple split up eight years later, and Fulk moved out, but the pair never divorced, the newspaper reported.

Last December, he reportedly petitioned to have his name changed to O’Neill before marrying his second wife.

The first wife allegedly learned about the second wife when Facebook recommended the two women become “friends,” Prosecutor Mark Lindquist told The News Tribune.

O’Neill, who has worked as a Pierce County corrections officer for five years, has been placed on administrative leave and is scheduled to appear in court March 22 on the felony charge.

Lindquist told the newspaper that the first wife alerted authorities to the dual marriages after he asked her to keep quiet about it while he fixed the situation.

Apparently, she wasn’t convinced.

“It’s not the crime of the century, but it is a crime,” Lindquist told the newspaper.

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