Georgia ministry scam plea deal could get thrown out

Millions of dollars intended to help feed the poor instead was diverted by a Georgia family to pay for their gambling trips, houses, cars and jewelry and to make a down-payment on a private jet. But the guilty plea of one of the people behind the Angel Food Ministries scheme may get thrown out. The trial court should have raised the issue of whether Andrew Wingo was mentally incompetent, even if his attorney did not bring it up, according to a Tuesday ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Doctors had told the trial court that Wingo, who was chief operating officer of Angel Foods, had extensive brain damage. His wife testified that he suffered from early-onset dementia. Friends said he had grown increasingly emotionally and mentally volatile. There was also testimony that he had a stress disorder relating to sexual abuse as a child and that he lived in a house with guns, knives and ammunition strewn about.

That should have signaled the court that he may not have been competent to agree to a plea deal, the appeals court ruling says. It ordered an inquiry into whether Wingo was competent at the time he pleaded guilty in 2013. If he was not, his guilty plea must be thrown out, and the government won't be able to re-try him until he is competent, the ruling says.