Embarrass `deadbeat dads,' then seize their cars

[woof]

It never ceases to amaze the length that our governmental officals will go to shame fathers about taking care of their kids.......a new low.
No mention of how much time these deadbeats get to spend with their kids.

http://tinyurl.com/sl5zo

Westchester: Embarrass `deadbeat dads,' then seize their cars
By JIM FITZGERALD
Associated Press Writer

October 17, 2006, 5:59 PM EDT

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- The next step in Westchester County's drive to collect child support from deadbeat parents may be seizing their cars and selling them, the Social Services commissioner said Tuesday.

Commissioner Kevin Mahon spoke as the county, hoping to shame some parents into compliance, took out a newspaper ad to publish the photographs of four men who have skipped out on a total $193,000 in child support payments.

Mahon said he would do whatever works, including impounding an offender's car and then selling it if there's no support payment in 30 days.

"If you don't want your picture in the paper, you don't want your license suspended, you don't want your car impounded, you don't want to go to jail, do the right thing," Mahon said. "Pay your child support."

County Executive Andrew Spano said the newspaper photos could accomplish three objectives:

_Embarass the four men into making payments.

_Prompt people who recognize them to report their whereabouts.

_Put other offenders on notice that their pictures, too, might appear in the newspaper or on TV.

He noted that reneging on court-ordered child support "not only changes the quality of life of the spouse and children but it also dips into the pockets of the taxpayers" by forcing many families onto welfare rolls.

"If we could get one of these guys it would pay for the ad 10 times over," Spano said. The quarter-page ad in Tuesday's New York Post cost $6,624. Spano said it would not be repeated until results are evaluated.

The county executive said he paid support for four children from a previous marriage and had to adjust his spending to do it.

"I could not afford to live the lifestyle I (previously) lived because I had to pay child support, so I didn't live that lifestyle," he said. "I changed it. I downgraded it. I made sure I had the money, because it's an important thing for families to make sure that their children are taken care of."

Mahon said parents who are tracked down often say they don't have enough money but have new cars and take vacations.

"They're not willing to say, `What's my first responsibility?"' he said.

If someone who owes child support has no job, he said, the county would help that person find one.

Spano said about $144 million is owed in the county, and the office of Child Support Enforcement is hoping to collect $60 million this year, up from $58 million last year.

Carmen Almeida, ex-wife of one of the men pictured in the ad, is owed $63,000. She said Tuesday that her husband has never paid any support in the seven years they've been divorced. As a result, she said, their 18-year-old daughter may have to drop out of American University in Washington next semester when a scholarship runs out.

She fears her ex-husband, Alberto Almeida, may have fled to Portugal, but hopes friends of his who see the picture "will speak to him and see if he can send his daughter something. She needs the money and he always said he loved her very much."

Manuel Barreiro, director of the child support office, said he had no record of an attorney representing Alberto Almeida, and Carmen Almeida did not recall the name of her ex-husband's divorce lawyer.

___

On the Net:

Link to Westchester County's `Wanted for Failure to Pay Child Support' page: http://www.westchestergov.com

[Morgri]

Ummm... has the woman ever heard of a loan? It's not like I'm rolling in dow.

[dr e]

Tuition, room and board at American University is around $40,000 per year.  That's just 3k less than the average YEARLY income of all residents of NY State.  Even with a scholarship I would bet the cost is steep. Something tells me mommy is no indigent.  It would be interesting to hear his side of this.  I would bet there is quite a story to tell.

[kjm]

Newspaper Ad Highlights 'Deadbeat Dads'
One Woman Also Made List

POSTED: 9:05 am EDT October 19, 2006

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Deadbeat dads: Pay your child support, or wind up in a newspaper ad.

What woman, where is her picture, what is her name and address, how much money does she owe?

[TheManOnTheStreet]

My daughter is a first year student at Johnson & Wales.  Even with all the scholarships, grants, & freebees, etc... I still have to come up with about a grand a month for her.

College aint cheap.

TMOTS

[kjm]

The one woman owes $68,000



Newspaper Ad Highlights 'Deadbeat Dads'
One Woman Also Made List

POSTED: 9:05 am EDT October 19, 2006

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Deadbeat dads: Pay your child support, or wind up in a newspaper ad.

Web Site: Deadbeat Dads

Westchester County, N.Y., bought a quarter-page ad labeled "Deadbeat Dads" in the New York Post this week. The ad reads: "Do you know where these deadbeat dads are? Their children don't."

"We are turning up the pressure on these deadbeats," said County Executive Andy Spano. "We have many ways of making them pay -- suspending their driver's licenses, garnishing their pay, even arresting them -- but we hope that this latest method will shame them, and others who see the ad into doing the right thing."

The first ad in the paper features four deadbeat fathers who owe a total of $192,576 for their six children.

The county hopes the four major child support debtors are shamed into paying, or at least officials can find out where they are. It's the county's latest move in the crackdown on absent parents. Photos and information on them and eight other deadbeats, including a mother, can also be found on the county's Web site.

The county said the men owe between $34,000 and $63,000 each. The ex-wife of a man who owes $63,000 said he may have fled the country but she hopes his friends will see the ad and speak to him.

One of Westchester County's largest child support offenders is a woman -- she owes $68,000.

"Making sure that parents take financial responsibility for their children is a major issue because it not only affects the lives of these children, but society as a whole,'" said Spano. "When parents don't pay child support, families are forced to go on public assistance and the taxpayer ends up taking on that responsibility."

Westchester County Social Services Commissioner Kevin Mahon said that the Office of Child Support Enforcement currently has 16,872 open cases. About 40 percent of these families are on public assistance, and 60 percent are not.

The 12 people featured on the Web site owe a total of $412,840, but that is only a fraction of the amount actually owed. DSS estimates that if all the back payments that were owed were ultimately collected, it would total $144 million