Cousin Coerced Into Marriage Advice Needed

[TheCoralMoose]

My cousin who is 37 met someone 11 months ago.

He is much older but not as old as he said he was at first.

She never intended to marry him just go on dates and she decided not to let him move in her apartment which she owns. He had a house which he owned since learned he gave it to his daughter just after meeting my cousin.

He said he was 45 he is actually 61.

Him and my cousin had a 5 day break booked for las vegas just before she decided she no longer wanted him.
She went ahead with the vegas break because he paid a lot of money for it.

On the day before they were due to fly back she doesnt know if she was spiked or given too much alcohol but he took her very intoxicated to a chapel and they get wed.

On returning home she told him its still over then he shown her the marriage certificate.

She called her mum and dad and they came round told him to get out he said fuck off its my place as much as hers and threatened them.

What can be done?. No its not a joke thread its deadly serious.

He has said because he is older and now his daughter has his house his housing needs will be more than hers because she is younger than him.

Is this something the police will get involved in.

First, she needs to get her hands on the supposed marriage certificate. If he won’t hand it over, or even tell her where & when they ‘married’ then I think he’s made it all up.

There will be lots of Mumsnetters who got married in the US (me included) and we can compare the safety features of a genuine certificate against this one, if he does hand it over.

1. Check its legit marriage - she would had to have shown ID etc, hard to go on accident
2. Google how to VOID Vegas wedding & follow instructions

Can someone really get married even in Vegas without being compos mentis? Surely the celebrant would notice if she was too drunk/drugged to know what she was doing and refuse to go ahead?
I'd ask for the certificate and get it looked at by a UK lawyer. I doubt that in the UK someone who had only been married a few days and was coerced into it while barely conscious, would have to give half their possessions to their new spouse in the case of a divorce.

As well as telling police, seek help and advice from a women's charity that can help with the process.
Google your local ones and maybe ask for advocacy from the police and/or them because she sounds vulnerable.

she needs to check if it’s actually legal as you usually have to go to the courts house to make it legal if you aren’t American. The wedding chapel isn’t legal in the uk without doing the paperwork first.

Tell her to call the police ASAP and to explain the situation. Make sure they know that the marriage was never consumated (never had sex since the suposed wedding). I'd do it now rather than later.

I had family that got married in vegas and both had to take their birth certificates with them to get a marriage license. Did your cousin take hers? If not, he’s talking bollocks.

You can’t just turn up at a chapel in vegas and get married if you are a British citizen. You can if you’re American.

British you have to go to the court house before hand with your passport and sign papers to say you consent to be married and aren’t married to someone else etc. So either she’s lying or the marriage isn’t legal.

Chapels will not marry foreign people without the licence which is obtained from the court house.
I got married in vegas so I know all this is correct

Was he looking for a house rather than a relationship all along. Just shows how refusing to let a man move in with you is all a good idea but this one has done it by illegal means. Hope she gets rid of him quick,

If it was while she was drugged, it's rape. Police, GP and a family lawyer asap @TheCoralMoose

She needs legal advice and tell them she believes she was spiked and has no memory of this. Also report to the police as suggested.

I got married in the US (admittedly in New York, not Nevada) and, as others have said, you have to go to the County Clerk 24 hours before the wedding to fill out paperwork and pay for a marriage licence.

No licence = no legal marriage.

In the meantime, I would be contacting the police to get him out of her house.

Not if there was no licence. And both parties have to attend the license bureau and provide ID

did she?

Nevada marriage licences can be checked online. Start there to see if a licence was sought. It's pretty up to date.

How awful. I'm not sure if the same rules apply to marriages performed in the States, but in the UK this is how you can annul your marriage:

Your marriage is ‘voidable’
You can annul a marriage for a number of reasons, such as:
it was not consummated - you have not had sexual intercourse with the person you married since the wedding (does not apply for same sex couples)
you did not properly consent to the marriage - for example you were forced into it
the other person had a sexually transmitted disease (STD) when you got married
your spouse was pregnant by someone else when you got married
one spouse is in the process of transitioning to a different gender

Source: https://www.gov.uk/how-to-annul-marriage

If they've not consummated the marriage then your cousin can get out of it. She also needs to call the police and get this man jailed.

I'm guessing there was no indication at all that he would do this?

The trip to Vegas didn't set alarm bells ringing at all?

If she didn't intend to marry him or live with him perhaps the fact that he gave his house to his daughter shows some intent on his part?

I would have thought though if she didn't knowingly sign anything then it's all faked?

Get the police involved. Yes she needs to do the annulment, but this isn’t a case of two people making a silly decision and then sorting it out once they’ve sobered up, it’s a case of coercion and intimidation and that is definitely something the police should know about.

Didn’t know that but mines there from 2001!

Holy god that is flipping wild! Police and drugs test immediately. The poor woman

I'd been inclined to go to the police and talk to a UK solicitor as soon as possible.

But as many PP said first thing may be to work out if this was a legal marraige under Nevada law - as she from UK she'd have had to do paperwork at court house before hand - did she?

If it is a legal marriage she should may still be able to get it annulled but again she'd be best taking legal advice.

If she is married - her prior assets don't become marraige property when divorse - there was a recent five year marraige case where after an appeal they decide wealth had been accured prior to second marraige so he got to keep more of his assets - and such a short marraige they'd not likely be considered at all.

I'd expect the police to be interested - at very least to get him to leave the property.

That's even better - she'd soon know what she is actually dealing with.

Marriage needs to be annulled.

Its not his house as much as hers anyway - there’s an exception for short marriages even if there was no coercion.

Search for a wedding record https://clerk.clarkcountynv.gov/AcclaimWeb/Marriage/FindMyMarriageRecordSearch If you dont find one then ask the police if it's fraud or coercive control.

For a short marriage it's not a marital asset. Presumably he's never lived there, his name is not on any bills so it's not a matrimonial home, but she may need to convince the police of that. She needs to record him making threats to her parents when they try again to get him out.

She needs to change the locks. If he drugged her he will have had a key cut. Lawyer to get a protective order https://familycourts.idas.org.uk/protective-orders/#:~:text=Orders%20to%20protect%20you%20and%20your%20children&text=An%20order%20to%20prevent%20someone,you%20or%20coming%20near%20you.

It doesn’t sound like the marriage is legal, however on the small chance it is, your friend is in a dangerous position. If anything were to happen to her, all her assets would likely go to her “husband”.

Where has he been living since he gave his house away?