A woman’s hunch about her husband lead to his arrest after she discovered he was living a double life. He issued a grovelling apology as he was sentenced in court
A woman turned detective and discovered a shocking double secret about her husband – which ultimately led to his arrest.
Tonya Betsey met Henry Betsey, Jr on Tinder, and the two were married at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, US, on November 24, 2020.
“Meeting on a dating site and the way he portrayed himself, he sold the perfect person, when in reality he was none of those things,” she warned. It comes after woman is jailed for leaving eight starving dogs to eat each other in hellhole flat.
Sadly, it didn’t take long for Tonya to realise she wasn’t the only lady in Henry’s life. His indiscretions came to light when she began to search for her husband’s name in county court records, and made the shocking discovery that he had marriage licenses to two other women.
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Henry had married second wife Brandy two years after his wedding to Tonya, in February 2022. And just months later, a third woman, Michele, met Henry on the dating website Match.com, and they tied the knot at a courthouse in Hernando County in November 2022, after only knowing each other for three weeks.
“I just started county by county, putting in his name. And that’s when I came up with the marriage to Michele and the marriage to Brandy,” Tonya told WFTS.
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Betsey Jr. didn’t get divorces or annulments before marrying again, and there is no database that compares Florida marriage licenses between counties.
The wives all blame the state of Florida for not cross-referencing marriage licenses between counties. “There are no safeguards, and I feel like that’s part of where the system failed,” Michele said.
“If the counties did talk, it would have saved me a lot of heartache, a lot of money, a lot of stress,” Tonya added.
Betsey Jr. pleaded guilty to the felony bigamy charge in May. Speaking at his sentencing hearing this week, he apologised for marrying three women at the same time.
“First and foremost, I want to apologise to the ladies and I want to apologise to the court administration and to my family and friends that had to be involved in this. Because ultimately this is something that I didn’t wish to be part of,” he said.
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Since Henry had no prior criminal convictions – and with another case in Virginia not yet resolved – the judge explained that he was limited under the law in what sentence he could impose.
“I’m going to adjudicate him guilty of the bigamy offense, which is gonna make him a convicted felon,” Judge Charles B. Merritt, Jr. said. “I’m gonna sentence him to two years’ probation with 8 days credit for time served. You’re gonna have to do a mental health evaluation, complete a certified battery intervention program.”
Betsey’s former wives and their families said they had hoped Henry would see jail time – but that they were glad to put the ordeal behind them
“While I respect the court’s decision and understand the reasoning behind the sentence, I can’t say I was completely satisfied with the outcome. I had hoped for a stronger sentence,” Tonya said in a statement. “That said, I recognise that the judge weighed all the factors involved, and I accept the decision, even if it wasn’t what I had expected.”
“While it was not jail time, the fact that he is a convicted felon, that speaks mountains and I feel like that’s vindication on our part,” Michele added.