I am forwarding this unusual child support story that I received from ACTIV-L. Steven Zahniser [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 00:06:34 GMT From: Bob Witanek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Philadelphia: Dirty 39th Settlements / Child Support From: Bob Witanek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Dirty 39th Settlements / Child Support Posted [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Jul 28 21:28:29 1996 From: Ronnie Dadone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/96/Jul/28/city/BEAT28.htm ) ) [The Philadelphia Inquirer] City & Region ) ) Sunday, July 28, 1996 ) ) Before payout, city pegs fathers ) Child-support obligations will have to be paid by 17 men before they ) get their 39th District settlements. ) ) By Mark Fazlollah ) INQUIRER STAFF WRITER ) ) There's a silver lining to Philadelphia's costly police corruption ) scandal. ) ) Needy youngsters will be getting some money out of it. ) ) The Rendell administration recently agreed to pay $2.4 million to ) settle a skein of civil lawsuits by people who contended they were ) wrongly arrested by 39th District police officers. ) ) Of 38 people slated to get checks under the settlement, 17 are ) deadbeat dads who owe a total of $86,000 in child support, the City ) Controller's Office has found. ) ) And they won't get a penny from the city until they satisfy their ) obligations to their children, said City Controller Jonathan A. ) Saidel. ) ) ``At one level, some of this money is going for a good cause,'' ) Saidel said in an interview. ``It was the perfect thing to do.'' ) ) When the city settles lawsuits -- whether over slips and falls, ) water-main breaks or police shootings -- the controller's office ) must review and approve the payments before checks can be cut. ) ) The 39th District settlement spurred an assistant controller, Steven ) Kaplan, to do a new kind of review. He ran the Social Security ) numbers of the 38 plaintiffs through a Common Pleas Court database ) of deadbeat fathers. ) ) He got results immediately. One man owed $30,000, Kaplan found. ) Another had reneged on a $12,000 obligation. Two others were behind ) $10,000 to $11,000 each in child support. ) ) Kaplan said the man with the $30,000 bill had not paid support in ) about a decade. Two of the deadbeat fathers each owe money to three ) different mothers. The controller's office declined to identify any ) of the fathers, citing confidentiality laws. ) ) Before the 17 men can collect from the city, they will have to clear ) their accounts with Common Pleas Court. The payments will go to 22 ) different mothers. ) ) Lawyers for two of the men already have agreed to pay a total of ) $8,000. ) ) ``It's very easy money to collect,'' Kaplan said. ``All you've got ) to do is contact the attorneys.'' ) ) In addition to the $86,000 the 17 fathers owe, some have unresolved ) support claims against them that could push the total higher. ) ) One lawyer whose client was supposed to collect $25,000 under the ) 39th District settlement said that about half the money would go to ) pay six years of child support. ) ) The attorney, who asked that neither he nor his client be ) identified, said the man had taken the news philosophically. ) ) ``He's still going to get some money out of the deal,'' the attorney ) said. ``He accepts the reality of that, and he's just getting on ) with his life. He accepts that as his responsibility as a parent.'' ) ) Saidel said the effort to identify deadbeat parents soon would be ) expanded beyond the 39th District cases to cover every monetary ) settlement agreed to by the city -- about 1,000 a year. ) ) The controller said he also would ask SEPTA, the Philadelphia ) Housing Authority, and the Philadelphia School District to perform ) similar checks in all their settlements. ) ) ``Public agencies are being sued all the time,'' Saidel said. ``The ) city must regularly pay claims from settlements or court verdicts. ) We are now checking these payouts before they go out the door.'' ) ) Kaplan said there was an added benefit to the program. The federal ) government gives grants to local programs that are successful in ) catching deadbeat parents. The more of them Philadelphia forces to ) pay up, the bigger the grants it stands to get, Kaplan said. ) ) Citywide, there are about 80,000 deadbeat dads. ) ) ``I look forward to giving other men that opportunity to pay,'' ) Saidel said.
