Monday, Oct. 22, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.
As far as Kimberly Shirak of Ypsilanti, Mich., is concerned, she and her husband of six months are married - really, truly, legally married.
And to prove it, she's got a marriage certificate from Las Vegas' Garden of Love, photos of family members and an Elvis impersonator, and the signature of an official witness.
Problem is, the witness - the chapel's co-owner - was about 1,000 miles away at the time of the April 7 nuptials, watching an Ultimate Fighting Championship match in Texas.
So, back to the big question: Does that mean Shirak is or isn't married?
The answer - probably - is as unpredictable and uncertain as love itself. And so the advice that officials have for the Shiraks and 18 other couples married at the Garden of Love that day is that they might want to get married again, just to be on the safe side.
Not that the couples aren't married. They are. But do they really want to take the chance that , if one of them dies, death benefits might be denied to the survivor because someone questions the legality of their marriage?
That is the gist of a district attorney's office opinion given to Clark County Clerk Shirley Parraguirre, who has been wrestling with the question after a City Council meeting Wednesday brought the marriages' legality into question.
At the heart of the matter is the business license of the Las Vegas Garden of Love wedding chapel, 1431 Las Vegas Blvd. South. The city revoked the chapel's license in September, citing a report by Metro Police that the chapel had become a public nuisance.
The chapel was allowed to remain in operation, however, until the City Council had a chance to hear the Garden of Love's case for keeping its license. The meeting date was extended to today after two ministers picked up by police and driven to the council meeting asked to have attorneys at their side before answering questions about the legality of the marriages.
At Mayor Oscar Goodman's demand, police found the ministers, Phillip Williams and Jesus Diaz, who on April 7 officiated over several weddings at the Garden of Love.
The problem with the weddings is this: Nevada law demands that a witness be present at a wedding. The certificate for each of the marriages lists the witness as Cheryl Luell, who owns the Garden of Love with her husband, Craig.
But Luell told the council that though her name was on the certificates, she was at the Ultimate Fighting Championship bout in Texas at the time.
Then who signed them? Luell said she figured the ministers must have. And that's when Goodman ordered that the ministers be brought to the council to try to clear up the matter.
If the ministers are at fault, Parraguirre promised to bring both before hearings to determine whether their licenses should be revoked.
"Even if (Cheryl Luell) told them to sign her name to those documents, we will schedule a revocation hearing," the county clerk said.
That takes care of one matter. But there's still the question: Are those 19 marriages legal if the witness on the marriage certificates was never there?
Parraguirre said there is legal precedent, though not in Nevada, to support the notion that the couples are married.
In California, for instance, a couple at odds with each other challenged their Nevada wedding, saying there wasn't a witness to it. A judge ruled, however, that there was, indeed, a marriage because both the husband and wife were party to it, they both knew it was a wedding and so, ipso facto, it's a wedding.
Parraguirre also cited a Nevada statute that states, in essence, " If a couple come here and they believe their minister has the proper credentials - but it turns out that he really doesn't - even if the minister isn't there in good faith, it's still a marriage because the husband and wife did it in good faith."
The problem, she noted, comes in the case of legal benefits guaranteed to a widow or widower married without a witness present.
Can those benefits be denied?
"No one, to our knowledge, has ever attacked this," Parraguirre said.
The mere recording of a marriage certificate is "presumptive evidence" that the marriage took place. "It would be the burden of whoever was challenging it to prove that it wasn't legal," she said.
So what's a couple married on April 7 in the Garden of Love to do?
Shirak still isn't sure. She and her husband of six months read the story of the Garden of Love online just a few days ago.
"We were shocked when we pulled up the story," Shirak said, referring not only to the question about the legality of some Garden of Love ceremonies, but also to criminal charges against Luell for allegedly stealing a garment-imprinting machine and allegations that Garden of Love employees have intimidated and threatened other chapels' representatives.
"We expected some shadiness, but not like that," she said.
Still, the Shiraks are clear, at least in their own minds, on whether they are husband and wife.
"I've changed my name, benefits are being shared by my husband and his children - as far as we're concerned, we're married, regardless of what this piece of paper shows."
The only reason the Shiraks used the Garden of Love, she added, is that they were notified that they had won second place - a discounted wedding - in a contest sponsored by the chapel.
The cost: $349.
When the couple was married - her parents, her sister and the Elvis impersonator were present - Shirak even asked whether they needed a signature in addition to Luell's, because in Michigan two witnesses are required. "They said no, everything's fine," she said.
All things considered, Shirak seems to be taking the matter in stride.
"There's nothing wrong with getting married in Vegas," she said. "People have very nice, professional weddings there. But this, this is just making them look bad."
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