Did I just read this in the Republic or a supermarket tabloid?

by David Safier

This story about Scott Bundgaard's marriage five years ago is so full of unbelievable details, I would think twice about repeating it, except that it's from the Republic, not the Weekly World News next to a picture of Alien Boy, and the man is right now embroiled in a case of possible physical abuse against his recently-ex girlfriend.

Bundgaard was married in 2005 to Anne Harwell — for a short while, anyway. The actual marriage ended during the honeymoon.

The two met over the internet, "had a whirlwind romance" and said their vows at the house of a friend of Bundgaard's, Pierre Falcone.

Bundgaard's buddy Falcone is only relevant to the story because in 2009, he "was sentenced to six years in a French prison for masterminding the trafficking of Soviet-made weapons to Angola during a civil war in the 1990s." That's the kind of guy Scott hangs with.

It was a covenant marriage, a creation of Arizona legislation in 1998. The couple has to go through premarital counseling and sign a declaration saying they "agree to live together as husband and wife for as long as they both live." They go on to say they have "chosen each other carefully," and they will seek counseling if they "experience marital difficulties." The bar is higher for divorce than for most marriages. They can only get a divorce if one partner has committed adultery, has been imprisoned or sentenced to death, has physically or sexually abused the spouse — and a few other particulars. They have to seek counseling and try to work things out.

When they were on their honeymoon in Hawaii, Harwell callled the police "saying she needed help." It wasn't specified what kind of help she needed. According to Bundgaard, he didn't know about the call to the police, just that "she unexpectedly left him one afternoon while he was out getting items for a picnic." Really. Getting items for a picnic. She left a note.

Bundgaard actually did try to save the marriage, saying he would pay for counseling. No dice. Harwell wrote in a letter, "If you agree to let me go now, you can keep all of our wedding gifts and I will not seek any attorney fees." The marriage was finally annulled in 2008.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Scott Bundgaard, Majority Leader of the Arizona State Senate — for awhile longer, anyway — who Russell Pearce defends by saying, "I think he is a victim of this whole thing. I feel bad for him. He certainly has paid the price."