Atlanta Court Rules In Family’s Favor In Care Of Man Allegedly Tricked Into Marriage

A Cobb County court in Metro Atlanta has ordered the family of a man suffering from dementia to take over guardianship after claims that he was tricked into marriage.

The family of an Atlanta man has gained guardianship of him after alleging he was tricked into marriage. John Belt, who has been dealing with advanced dementia, was considered “totally incapacitated” when he married his wife, Avis Wingo Belt.

An investigation by Atlanta News First Investigates led authorities to take a closer look into the matter, with the court transferring guardianship of the man to his family, as one of his sisters referred to the ordeal as “worse than a ‘Lifetime’ movie.” The family’s attorney, Tristan Gillespie, maintains that the proof overwhelmingly favors their claims that the union was not made from love.

“That’s all the story one needs to know that this was a marriage based on fraud,” explained Gillespie.

In 2018, Wingo Belt applied for a marriage license in Florida, without the family’s knowledge, a little over a week after his severe dementia diagnosis. The Cobb County Probate court discovered that Wingo had access to her husband’s annual pension and Social Security benefits, totaling $33,000. Court documents allege that she used this money to buy a new car and home yet accrued over $20,000 in credit card debt. Belt’s family claims that the marriage was a ruse to use the 58-year-old’s finances and credit lines to provide for her lifestyle.

However, Wingo Belt has denied the allegations of her marrying her husband, who lives in a care facility an hour and a half away from her home, for monetary advantages. The two first met as work colleagues for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA).

“That’s very untrue,” said the 55-year-old, still employed by MARTA, to the news outlet. “I’m not destitute, nor am I desperate.”

She continued, noting that Belt’s intentions were always to get married so that his mother would not receive any money from his passing.

“John was still in his right mind,” she claimed. “John was going to get married anyway. He wanted me to marry him because he said, ‘I don’t want my mother with any of my stuff.’ ”

Family and friends remain adamant that the wedding, conducted in secret while the couple was on a cruise, was a plan manipulated by Wingo Belt, especially given that they were unaware of it happening. Furthermore, the family has also insisted that the care facility the woman placed him in has neglected his care, with the courts also ruling in their favor to promptly remove him, according to the outlet. Whether or not the marriage will be annulled has yet to be determined.