HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — A man is facing charges for marrying three Florida women in three different counties at the same time.
Now, those women are speaking out, saying the system that handles marriage licenses kept them in the dark.
“There are no safeguards, and I feel like that's part of where the system failed,” Michele Betsey said.
“He took each one of us to a county over to get married,” said Brandi Betsey.
“If the counties did talk, it would have saved me a lot of heartache, a lot of money, a lot of stress,” added Tonya Betsey.
The I-Team is looking at how it can happen at a time when online records can be viewed with a few clicks of a mouse.
WATCH: I-Team Report on Florida man arrested for having 3 wives in 3 counties
Three weddings at three county courthouses in two years
A wedding usually signifies a lifetime commitment between two people embarking on life’s journey.
But three Florida women learned they were on the same journey with Henry Betsey, Jr., at the same time.
Michele married Henry in Hernando County on Nov. 23, 2022.
“I met him on Match.com. We met in early November,” Michele said.
She said they quickly grew close and got married at the county courthouse after a quick courtship.
“It was very short. It was very soon. It was within about a three-week span,” she said.
Henry was still married to Brandi Betsey at the time.
He married her Feb. 22, 2022, at the Manatee County Courthouse on the same day the two applied for a marriage license.
“I met him on a dating app. The first time I ever got on a dating app,” she said.
That dating app was Stir, which is aimed at matching single parents.
“He said all the right things,” she said.
When Brandi married Henry, he was still married to Tonya Betsey.
They applied for a marriage license in Gadsden County, FL, on Nov. 20, 2020, and the couple married at the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville on Nov. 24, 2020.
Tonya met Henry on Tinder.
“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,” Tonya said.
Husband of three charged with felony Bigamy
Henry was arrested for felony bigamy at his home in Seminole County last year after Tonya figured out she wasn’t his only wife.
“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 Brandi,” Tonya said.
“She found me and she messaged me, and I had no idea that she was actually still married to him,” Michele said.
Michele contacted authorities in Hernando County, where her marriage occurred, and detectives began an investigation.
“I'm just looking at this. It's so bizarre. We never get this charge,” the judge said at Henry’s first appearance.
Florida is a sought-after wedding destination
The wives say marrying Henry was easy.
“You go to the Records Division, you apply for a marriage license. They take your information, they take a copy of your photo ID,” Michele said. “We got married right there at the courthouse, no questions asked. There was nothing that was flagged in the system for him having already two prior open marriage licenses.”
“I did the paperwork and got married all within 15 minutes,” Brandy said.
In Pinellas County, which is not one of the counties where Henry got married, about 2,000 people get married at three county courthouses each year.
That’s out of about 6,000 marriage licenses issued annually.
There is a 72-hour waiting period for Florida residents, but that can be waived by a judge.
There is no required waiting period for people who come to Florida to get married from other states.
Pinellas County Clerk Ken Burke said Florida makes it easy to get married because the state is a big wedding destination, with weddings often held along Florida’s beaches and at resorts like Walt Disney World.
Burke said the ease of getting married in the Sunshine State could contribute to people abusing the process.
The honor system
“Well, it does surprise me, but unfortunately, there's not really safeguards to find that out,” Burke said.
He said marriage applications are based on the honor system.
“They swear that the information on the application is correct. And one of the things they have to show is that if they were married previously, how did the marriage end in either death, divorce, or annulment,” Burke said.
He says Henry would have misrepresented the fact that his marriages had not legally ended for other counties to issue him a license.
Licenses and marriage certificates are sent to the state by individual counties, but once they arrive, they aren’t compared to each other or to death, annulment, or divorce records.
“If there were safeguards in place and there was cross-referencing on different counties here in the state of Florida, none of this would have ever happened,” Michele said.
The women recently found Henry’s profile on another dating website.
“Looking for a beautiful woman who understands the ups and downs of life, is trustworthy and no games,” Michele said, reading Henry’s profile they came across on Bumble.
The extra perks of marrying a single mom
Henry's wives said they eventually came to believe their marriages had more to do with money than love.
“The day we got married, he said, 'We need to make your bank account a joint bank account,'" Brandi said.
“We were either divorced or about to be divorced. Maybe coming into something,” Tonya said.
“Child support, alimony, anything that comes with, you know, the extra perks of marrying a newly single, divorced woman,” Michele said.
Henry’s financial situation appears to have taken a turn for the worse.
At a recent court hearing, he told the judge he had no source of income or money in the bank.
He told the judge that he was currently living with a “Christian friend.”
Michele and Tonya say they obtained domestic violence orders from judges after Henry became abusive and escaped their marriages.
Brandi said she kicked Henry out of her house after just five days of marriage.
Too hard to fix?
Henry finally filed for divorce from Tonya following his arrest and is now seeking annulment for his marriages to Michele and Brandi.
Burke is not sure there is a good way to prevent people from taking advantage of the system, short of a national marriage registry.
“I just think it's too hard. As much as we have records and so forth, you know, people are very transient. You can get a divorce in another state,” he said.
He also said that there are legitimate scenarios in which someone could get married multiple times in a year.
Henry’s wives are hoping he’ll be convicted and spend time behind bars.
“There's a potential that he may just walk away with probation. And that's what's really hurtful: there's no accountability. There is nothing that is going to stop him from doing this again,” Michele said.
Henry pleaded not guilty to the felony bigamy charge and has another court hearing later this month.
We reached out to him, but he declined through his attorney to comment.
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