Three Marines discharged, fined, sentenced to confinement after fake marriages

Marine Corps officials say three Camp Pendleton-based Marine corporals received bad-conduct discharges, $5,000 fines, and sentences of three to six months confinement after admitting to faking marriages for financial gain, several news outlets reported Monday.

Corporal Ashley Vice, who is lesbian, and her partner, civilian Jaime Murphy, married Corporal Jeremiah Griffin and Corporal Joseph Garner in order to collect $1,200 monthly housing stipends reserved for married Marines to live off base, according to the Los Angeles Times and other published reports.

The three corporals pleaded guilty at a special court martial to stealing from the government through fraud, Marine Corps officials said. In addition to fines and confinement, all three received bad conduct discharges.   

Vice, Griffin and Garner were assigned to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Camp Pendleton.   

Vice and Murphy, who as a civilian is beyond the reach of military law, told the Los Angeles Times they needed the housing allowances so they could afford to live together in an off-base apartment.

Although the military's don't ask/don't tell policy banning gays and lesbians from serving openly recently ended, same sex couples remain ineligible for married housing allowances because unmarried couples—gay or straight—are not allowed to live to together in base housing.

—City News Service contributed to this report