When Marcus and Kimberly Greene split up in 1985, she contends, a promise was made: No matter what, the two parents would take care of their four kids.
Three years later, she went to court, claiming her husband had broken that promise. Sunday, 13 years after they legally split, she had him thrown in jail -- with his current child support debt totaling about $72,000.
"We made an agreement that regardless of whether we were together or not, he was going to take care of the kids," said the former Mrs. Greene, who now goes by Kimberly Thomas and lives in Springfield Township. "The only time he paid was when they caught him. He paid $1,000 here and $1,000 there, and when he got out of jail he quit paying." This time, it might not be so easy. Mr. Greene's case is scheduled to go before a grand jury later this week and he might end up in jail for six months. He is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center on $68,000 bond.
The threat of jail is nothing new to Mr. Greene or any other non-custodial parent who refuses to pay child support. But the threat is usually so weak -- because of a variety of bureaucratic roadblocks across several systems -- few take it seriously.
In fact, about 100 people involved in Hamilton County cases owe more than Mr. Greene. Crackdown efforts have increased collection percentages, but tens of thousands of other parents involved in Tristate cases owe more than $300 million to local children. Tristate counties did not collect anything in about 125,000 cases last year. Here are some examples of the most egregious cases:
The highest amount of child support owed in Hamilton County is $755,000, nearly 10 times what Mr. Greene owed. Yet, that person, whose name is confidential because a warrant has not been issued for his arrest, has managed to tie the case up in court for so long that it never gets to the point of arrest.
Former Cincinnati Reds player Leon Durham's arrearage climbed to $79,591 by the time Campbell County issued a warrant for his arrest in 1996 and he turned himself over to police. He now pays regularly. Kenton County is extraditing former Cincinnati lawyer Phillip Allen -- whose debt tops $85,000 for four children -- from California. He was arrested in 1996 but fled after posting $10,000 bond.
In Butler County, Ralph Asher owes the most child support -- $53,000. In Clermont County, the biggest offender is Daniel Soto, who owes $74,763. His last known address was in Elmont, N.Y.
In Warren County, the county's biggest offender is Gary Clifford, who owes $58,868. Mr. Clifford's last known address was in Woodstock, Ga. "Numbers like this are great for showing the public how much of a problem this is," said Sally Schatteman, a special prosecutor for the attorney general's office who is in charge of child-support enforcement for Campbell County.
"But they don't mean anything to us on the front lines if you can't make people pay."
Parents all over the Tristate are frustrated with a system -- including child-support agencies, courts and police -- that either lets the non-paying parent off the hook or gives several chances. "I really had no shot of getting the money anyway, so you might as well put him in jail," Ms. Thomas said.
She raised her children -- now two teen-age boys and two teen-age girls -- in a housing development and bitterly recalls how the $600 a month she was supposed to get from her husband would have come in handy while she worked low-paying jobs or lived off welfare payments. "It was hard," said Ms. Thomas, a collections agent now making less than $20,000 a year. "There were a lot of things they wanted that I couldn't get for them."
COLLECTION RATES
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Here are county child support collection rates for fiscal year 1997 for Tristate counties*:
| | Cases | Collected | Percentage |
| Butler | 25,075 | 7,242 | 28.9 |
| Clermont | 12,267 | 6,116 | 49.9 |
| Hamilton | 105,210 | 24,307 | 23.1 |
| Warren | 8,187 | 4,089 | 49.9 |
| Boone | 3,158 | 2,048 | 65.0 |
| Campbell | 5,745 | 2,334 | 40.6 |
| Kenton | 9,947 | 3,779 | 38.0 |
| Dearborn | 4,296** | 467 | 10.8 |
*Numbers include cases where paternity has not been established and a court order has not been issued.
**Only one month's worth of cases. Unduplicated count not available.
Source: Ohio Department of Human Services, Kentucky Cabinet of Human Resources and Indiana Department of Family and Social Services.
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How it works
Child-support agencies have used a variety of methods -- including Most Wanted posters, televised photos and police sweeps -- to get at non-paying parents. But it takes months, even years, for a case to get to that point.
For example, in Hamilton County, the county cannot take the case to court until bickering over the order is finished, the person fails to pay support totaling one month's worth of payments, the person can be found and notified that a court action is taking place and the person's spouse or ex-friend can be located to discuss the case.
The case then can be scheduled for appearance in domestic relations court (divorces) or juvenile court (separations and out-of-wedlock births). Only if the person fails to show for a court appointment can a warrant for contempt be issued, said Mindy Good, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County Department of Human Services, which oversees the county's Child Support Enforcement Agency.
"We have to give them their due process by law," she said.
According to Ohio law, the first contempt charge conviction can bring 30 days in jail and a $200 fine; the second, 60 days in jail and a $500 fine; and the third, 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
But many avoid jail by pleading with the judge or magistrate in hopes of getting a second or third chance, or even more.
This is an appealing alternative because judges, magistrates and prosecutors know that sending a parent to jail means getting the support money is out of the question.
"How far they will allow an arrearage to go differs from judge to judge and magistrate to magistrate," said Terry Gaines, chief assistant prosecutor for the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office, who oversees the child-support division.
Felony cases
Sometimes, a case goes to criminal court. Once a person fails to pay in 26 of the previous 104 weeks, he or she can be charged with a felony crime.
The penalty for conviction ranges from six months to 1 1/2 years in prison, along with fines.
While counties have become more aggressive, cases only become felonies after years of agony for the custodial parent.
"In this county, we've taken a stance that we will go after the worst of the worst," Mr. Gaines said. "So we go after those who haven't paid in 104 out of 104 weeks. And, at that point, our objective is to incarcerate, not get money."
Kevin O'Brien, leader of Parents and Children for Equality, a local group that works on behalf of many divorced or separated fathers, said the public should not link non-paying parents who would be charged with felonies -- the most serious offenders -- with all fathers. Most, he said, pay consistently.
"It is at 70 percent once you pull out the welfare cases," he said.
Increase effort
Public outcry has indeed increased efforts to collect child support, even now.
The Butler County Child Support Enforcement Agency has started mailing default notices to parents who failed to send child-support payments the previous month (14,000 so far) and the agency plans to file contempt-of-court charges against delinquent parents for failing to notify the agency of a change of address or employment.
"We want to get their attention and get them to start paying their support," said Daniel Cade, executive director of the Butler County agency.
In Clermont County, the agency is jumping on delinquent cases before it's too late.
"We have tried to refer cases to the prosecutor where people owe $2,000 instead of $10,000 or $20,000," said Theresa Ellison, lead attorney for the Clermont County Child Support Enforcement Agency. "When someone owes $20,000 or $30,000, it's difficult to collect."
Hamilton County thinks that embarrassing non-paying parents is also effective and runs pictures of the more egregious offenders on local television stations.
"The public exposure provides a lot of humiliation," said Carol Watson, head of the county's child-support collection agency. But Ms. Good feels that it will take a widespread public campaign to get more parents to pay up.
"What is missing is a stigma," she said. "We need to stigmatize these people like we have stigmatized smokers and like we have stigmatized drunk drivers."
Jane Prendergast and Steve Kemme contributed to this report.
