The marriage took place during a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park during the summer of 2001.
Before long, James Wallace Fall began alternating nights in the beds of his 49-year-old wife and his new "bride" in Mound.
Fall, now 58, saw nothing wrong with the fact that the bride was his niece or that she was 10 when they "married," according to Mound police.
He told the girl that it was God's will that they marry. He told police this justified their union, legally and morally.
"He absolutely believes what he's saying," said Jami Wittke, a detective with the Mound Police Department, who interviewed Fall. "He said the Bible tells him that it's OK to have a relationship with your niece, to marry someone" that young.
Fall was arrested in January and charged with criminal sexual conduct by the Hennepin County attorney's office.
Part of the reason for Fall's confidence in his own righteousness, say people who know him, is that he sees himself as being chosen by God.
"I've talked to family members and more than one has said Jim Fall believes he's a prophet of God, of Christ," Wittke said. "They were afraid of him."