Wednesday, January 12, 2000
Two firms accused of holding checks
Garnished child support overdue
BY DAN KLEPAL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Two Hamilton County companies have been referred to the prosecutor's office, accused of holding onto their employees' child support payments longer than the law allows.
Hillside Nursing Home in Avondale and Greg Hogue Construction in Loveland could face civil fines of $200 per violation.
Officials at the county's Department of Human Services say Hillside withheld more than $3,500 in payments dating to Sept. 27, which was to be given to six children. The checks arrived at the DHS office on Dec. 27.
Meanwhile, the officials say, Hogue Construction mailed four checks — one from October, two from November and one from Dec. 10 — on Dec. 22. All those checks were for one child and amounted to $128 each.
Companies routinely are ordered to garnish employees' wages for child support and forward that money to the county. They have seven business days after payday to mail the checks.
The county then cuts individual checks and mails them.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said the goal is to have the companies mail the payments on time.
“Of prime importance is to make sure the person entitled to the money gets it on time, and we'll be guided by that,” Mr. Allen said.
Harry Katz, owner of Hillside Nursing Home, said he was unaware of the late payments his company is accused of making.
“We want to find out exactly what happened, then we'll put in some safeguards to make sure it doesn't happen again,” he said.
Cheryl Hogue, who is married to Greg Hogue, said they have been giving the child support checks to their employee to mail to the county himself.
Lora Jollis, DHS director of client services, said last week she would refer three cases to the prosecutor. She said Tuesday she decided to refer the two of what she called the worst offenders.
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