Jacksonville woman claims she was duped by a 'Casanova con man'

A Jacksonville woman claims she's been duped by a "Casanova con man" who served time in prison in Georgia.

She met him online and he quickly started to pay off her bills.

Days later, the transactions didn't go through, but not before she says he convinced her to spend thousands on pricey watches.

Tekesia Johnson said she met the man on a dating site.

“I met him on May 21 and he said his name was Brian L. Adams M.D.,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he sent her texts and pictures. Johnson says he expressed interested in wanting a wife to take care of and offered to pay off her bills.

“I said, ‘I need to see your ID, I need to see your bank statement with your name and your address on there so I know that this account I'm using actually belongs to you and he was like, ‘Somebody must've did a job on you because you're so not trusting,’” Johnson said.

To earn her trust, she said he immediately paid off some of her bills and paid $25,000 toward her mortgage.

Then he asked her to finance a watch for him that he would pay off to boost her credit. Action News Jax took photos of the man and Johnson to the jewelry store Johnson said they visited at the St. Johns Town Center. Multiple employees confirmed seeing the man in the photos with Johnson when she spent $3,000 on two watches last month.

Johnson said soon after, he paid off a credit card and asked her to take $900 dollars off the credit card and deposit it into an account for him. She says he gave her a separate account to use to pay off her credit card again. Johnson said that’s when she again expressed concerns and confronted him about trying to scam her. She said her fears were confirmed when the bank notified her the payments for the bills he paid didn’t go through. That’s when she kept digging and uncovered mugshots of the man online.

The mugshots belonged to a man named Brian Wedgeworth, who was just released from prison in Georgia in February 2017 for forgery, identity theft and other charges. On Friday night, Action News Jax’s Tenikka Hughes called the number “Brian” gave to Johnson.

When asked about Tekesia Johnson’s claims, the man who answered said “Those accusations are totally false. I have had sort of a sordid history, I will admit that.” The man also denied being Brian Wedgeworth.

“You're not Brian Wedgeworth who was convicted in Dekalb County, Georgia?” Hughes asked.

“No ma'am,” he said.

Hughes asked the man several times if his real name was Brian L. Adams but he did not answer. The man did say that he had an attorney looking into the accusations against him. When Hughes asked for the attorney’s contact information, the man said that he would call her back with that information on Monday.

Johnson said, “This is my walk of shame that I have to walk, but if it’s going to take me to have to walk my walk of shame to help from somebody else going through what I went through, I’ll take this walk.”

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Johnson added, “My goal is to get him locked up and he needs to stay there,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she contacted all of the companies that she allowed the man to pay off to attempt to stop any payments from him. She said that she is thankful that the companies didn’t push the failed payments through. Still, she is out around $3,000 for the Movado watches she purchased. She has asked the man to return the watches, pay them off with the jewelry store or give her the money for him. As of Friday night, none of those things had happened.

DeKalb County Police in Georgia sent Action News Jax a police report from 2012, where a woman reported Brian Wedgeworth for fraud after she met him on a dating website and he paid off thousands of dollars in bills that also bounced.

We reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to see if they plan to investigate. We’re still waiting to hear back.

Cox Media Group