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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

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Marines Involved in Fake Marriages to Help Lesbian Couple Receive Housing Allowance Are Discharched

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Photo by Official U.S. Navy Imagery via Flickr

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After getting involved in phony marriages, three marines have been discharged with bad conduct.

L.A. Now reports that the individuals, Vice Cpl. Jeremiah Griffin, Cpl. Joseph Garner and Cpl. Ashley Vice participated in the marriages so that Vice and her female partner, Jaime Murphy, would be able to collect housing allowances that the military provides to married couples. Each male marine married one of the women, and each married couple collected $1,200 a month.

Vice and Murphy couldn't get married for obvious reasons, and unmarried couples aren't allowed to live together on a military base. According to L.A. Now, Vice said that she and Murphy "needed the housing allowances so they could afford to live together in an off-base apartment 'like a normal couple.'"

Griffin and Garner, in addition to being discharged, were fined $5,000 and will be held in confinement for three to six months.

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