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Colorado marriages now have law in common

Minimum age of 18 now applies across matrimonial board

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 19, 2006 at midnight

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Gov. Bill Owens on Tuesday signed a bill that raises the age for common-law marriage to 18, plugging a loophole in state law that some said opened the door for sexual abuse of children.

"It was imperative that Colorado change its law concerning the minimum age for common-law marriage," Owens said. "The age of consent for marriage should be consistent in our statutes and, most importantly, our young children must be protected."

Senate Bill 6, by Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, and Rep. Gwyn Green, D-Golden, raises the age of consent for common-law marriage to 18. The law goes into effect Sept. 1.

The state's common-law statute will now conform to the Colorado Uniform Marriage Act, which sets the minimum marriage age at 16 and requires parental or judicial approval for 16-year-olds and 17-year- olds to marry.

SB 6 was one of a dozen measures passed this month during a special session Owens convened to deal with illegal immigration and to amend the state's common-law marriage statute.

The new law comes in the wake of a recent Colorado Court of Appeals decision that concluded that the age of consent for common-law marriage in Colorado is 14 for boys and 12 for girls.

"Our concern is to keep marriage at age 18 so sexual predators aren't able to prey on young girls who don't have experience to tell when a predator does not love them but is simply preying on them," Green said.

The decision by the appeals court reversed a Weld County case in which a judge ruled that a 15-year- old girl was too young to consent to common-law marriage.

The ruling stunned many lawmakers and children's advocates, who quickly began pushing for the new statute to be passed.

The Weld County case involved a girl known in legal documents as J.H.M., who started living with Willis Lee Rouse in April 2002, when she was 14 and Rouse was 34.

Rouse, now 38, is an inmate at the Fremont Correctional Facility, serving four years for stalking and escape. J.H.M recently turned 18.

"I'm disappointed we couldn't make the new law retroactive," Green said. " I would have liked to provide some real choice to the young woman who is 18 and has apparently given birth to one or two children.

"(Rouse) used the current law to be convenient for him. Our law regarding common-law marriage is clear now," she said.

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