Child-support suit challenges jail tactic - Nashville, Tennessee - Monday, 06/25/07 - Tennessean.com
Child-support suit challenges jail tactic
Dad says inability to pay is no crime
By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer
Bryan Cottingham insists he had no intention of trying to escape the $37,000 he owed in back child support — he says he just didn’t have the money to pay.
But that didn’t stop a private collection agency working for the state from asking a Williamson County court to throw him in jail. Without a lawyer for much of the case, the freelance television producer and traffic reporter was sentenced to 170 days for criminal contempt of court. In 2002, he spent two days behind bars before making bail.
After years of legal wrangling, the Tennessee Supreme Court unanimously overturned the convictions, ruling that no one proved Cottingham had the money and refused to pay.
Cottingham, now 60, is pushing a federal lawsuit, hoping to collect damages and prevent the state child-support collectors from improperly using the threat of jail to pressure people who can’t afford to pay.
“I never tried to get out of paying child support. I never felt like I should get out of it,” he said, adding: “I can tell you that there was nothing lower in my life than when I was in that jail cell.”
Company follows laws
Officials at Tennessee’s Department of Human Services and the contractor involved, Policy Services Inc. of Denver, declined requests to discuss Cottingham’s case, citing the pending lawsuit. But in separate statements, both noted the importance of making sure money gets to children and families who need it.
“PSI fully complies with all federal and state of Tennessee laws … ,” the company said. “We employ a range of civil and criminal measures made available to us by the state to collect unpaid child support payments, including civil and criminal contempt petitions.
“It is the responsibility of the court system to protect the rights of all parties affected by a legal action, including the children who have not received the child support to which they are legally entitled,” the statement continued. “In the end, an individual who owes child support will not go to jail unless it is proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he or she committed a crime.”
Collection cases abound
Mike Adams, assistant commissioner for child support at the Department of Human Services, said in a statement that “for many families, receiving regular support can be the difference between self-sufficiency or dependence on others or the state.”
“Unfortunately, in spite of our best efforts, far too many parents are still walking away from their responsibility to provide financial support for their children,” he said. “These absent parents often leave the custodial parent and children in a difficult situation, struggling to provide for the basic necessities of life.”
Officials at the department, which oversees child-support collections, said they don’t track how many of the nearly 258,000 current child-support collection cases involve someone going to jail.
But one Nashville lawyer who works in family law thinks Cottingham’s case offers a window into the state’s complex, half-billion-dollar-a-year world of child-support collections. The system affects vast numbers of Tennesseans and collects money under threat of sanctions that can lead to financial ruin or incarceration, attorney Mike Urquhart said.
“Just because someone didn’t pay their child support does not mean that they are in contempt of a court order,” he said.
Income dropped 80%
During the 1990s, Cottingham paid support based on the $75,000 annual pay he earned at the time. But then his business tanked. “My income dropped about 80 percent,” Cottingham said.
The payments were lowered, but he still couldn’t keep up. The hole got deeper and deeper until he owed $37,000 in back child support and $36,000 in back alimony.
To put someone in jail for criminal contempt of court, the prosecution must prove that the person had the ability to pay and that nonpayment was deliberate.
PSI contracts to collect unpaid support in 11 counties, including Davidson, Williamson and Hickman. The work involves more than 35,000 cases and more than $381 million in unpaid child support, the company said.
In May of 2002, PSI filed 17 counts of criminal contempt against Cottingham. Cottingham couldn’t afford a lawyer and didn’t have one for much of the trial. The state Supreme Court later ruled that Cottingham should have had a lawyer appointed for what became a criminal proceeding, or asked whether he wanted to waive his right to an attorney.
Urquhart said he often sees criminal contempt petitions used in a similar manner in Metro’s Juvenile Court.
“It is a standard contempt petition,” he said. “They allege the same thing almost in every petition. I think that there is no accountability on the contracting agency of how they behave.”
The tactics of child-support collectors statewide seem to be working. During the past five years, the amount of child support disbursed through DHS collections increased 50 percent to $478 million in 2006. That’s about twice as fast as the growth in new collection cases.
Tony Gottlieb, of DAD of Tennessee, a fathers-rights organization, said he frequently hears claims that criminal contempt orders are being used improperly to collect child support.
“This is not an unusual situation you’re talking about,” he said. “It happens all the time.”
5 responses so far ↓
1 Merck // Jun 25, 2007 at 1:12 pm
The fact that this man had no problem with paying the child support until he lost his income has nothing to do with whether he was being treated lawfully.
I’m sure there were black people who really didn’t mind riding in the back of the bus either, and may have even resented the – uppity – Rosa Parks for the backlash suffered in the black community because of her antics.
The only people breaking any laws are the courts and anyone who supports their criminal activities.
The fact that the state is resorting to private contractors to do their dirty work should tell people how bad the situation has become. It sounds a lot like the U.S. Military hiring private contractors (mercenaries) in Iraq to murder the Iraqi people with impunity from prosecution as war criminals. We can’t have any more – Abu Ghraibs – undermining support for the oil effort … I mean war against terra effort.
I know this may be considered off topic, but anyone who thinks our government isn’t out of control should go to Google Video and view some of the footage about what really happened on 9/11/2001. I suspected that our government let it happen from day one but, (so does 2/3 of New Yorkers) after recently watching these videos; I now realize that they orchestrated and perpetrated the whole thing.
It’s time to wake up people. There is a lot more at stake here than custody and child support issues. Let’s join together and push to reopen the 9/11 investigation. Sign one of the online petitions – why not – what have we got to lose?
Kevin Merck
2 JessiesDaddy // Jun 25, 2007 at 8:49 pm
I too have been tossed into jail for contempt for not paying “Child” Support. I have no idea how the local CSEA came up with the figure I should pay in the first place but when I filed for a modification, they upped the amount. The mother of my beautiful baby has accused me, not once but three times, my girlfriend, and my 11 year old sister of sexual abuse. The last time we were in court for this the magistrate said he didn’t know why she kept doing this but it had to stop. He then made the remark in his findings of fact that it could be her paranoid personality. No, it is just evil. She went into contempt and kept my little one for three months the first time because of these false allegations. Magistrate slapped her on the fingers and gave me only 7 days of lost time. At 4 1/2 my little one has undergone 2 rape exams at the hands of this woman. After the 2nd test, I kept my daughter for 3 weeks begging the court to help me, they did nothing. Now here we go again, she has kept me from my little one since Easter bearing more false allegations, this time accusing me of putting her in danger. B. S. Same magistrate judges “Child” Support cases and since I am behind, oh yeah, it’s against the law to keep a child from a parent because of owing back support but they’ll find a way in the name of something else. I find it quite interesting how if it’s a support case, your butt will be in front of the judge in a couple of weeks but if your child is being kept from you, it takes 2 to 3 months to get your case heard.
Old men in suits, child support is their job security…
3 JessiesDaddy // Jun 25, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Oh, and it’s Mommy’s security too. She hasn’t worked in years, living off of alimony and child support for 2 other children by a previous marriage.
4 wdfields // Jun 27, 2007 at 11:24 am
Might our founders graciously recognized needs for checks and balances?
Might even the Magna Carta have been recognized as truly a valuable foundation for civil and dignified democracy?
Might even early architects to civil society have selflessly lent of valuable service and gifts by having endeavored articulation of NOW widely known faults of humanity?
And thus, may certain entities of our NOW present society be perhaps accurately characterized as captivated in well-known addictions unto the Federal Dole?
Where are the honorable entities in “Defending Liberty, Pursing Justice”? Have these been left to merely the form of a modern mirage?
Are we really paying 460 Billion Annually (and growing) to the likes of
Political Socialist Infiltrators,
Maximus level of interference for suspect state interests,
Agents for invigorations of Ill-will under auspices of Health and Welfare (of false dicta State Immunity cloakings),
. . . etc, etc.
And for NCSEA in corralling all separate legs of otherwise more honorable and cherished “separate and equal” pillars to civil society?
Complete with its own daughters WICSEC and ERICSA as tentacles of the white elephant for seeking-out yet further fixes for its insatiable appetite?
Covering “denials” of their irrational rationalizations for bizarre and NOW readily recognized acts and consequences to harm as lent by their self-crafted
“unconstitutional deal bent bats?” That is for effecting
- Racketeering?
- Unlawful death?
- Willful indifference to life?
- Flagrant violations of Civil Rights?
- Slavery/Involuntary Servitude?
- Revival of Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution?
- Indifference to “Privileges and Immunities” in favor of efficiency in “Full-Faith Credit” (i.e., Bradley)?
NOW, even MORE Contractors for the Contractors and by the Contractors (as allegedly entrusted by we the people of the people) have augmented the “adult babysitting wantabe” business payroll with even further entities that may include even JP Morgan, Bank of America, IBM, Deloitte & Touche, etc. . . . And others of known contracting to IV-D (666).
And NOW, various local courts espouse of being hostage to “law” (more in liking to personal mortgage payments) at ultimate expense to dignity otherwise owing Children of the Almighty.
No wonder some state bar associations even go as far as to NOW advise “members” to simply ignore sworn oaths and obligations.
In some political circles, we may recognize posturing of policies and practices deemed to facilitate respect for rule of law by which to befit stable, democratic governances. Third worlds may often be critiqued in having absence of stability and accordingly associated wastes in governmental corruption(s) and/or inefficiencies to commerce.
Today, we may NOW see signs on a forefront for an emerging Third World entity – at least as it may “effectively implement” via alleged non-profit corporations for its otherwise more profitable “members, national associations” for “educating and improving efforts of federal, state, tribal, local and foreign governments, private sector organizations, and their employees in the field of [extortion and racketeering and slavery] and to ensure [maximus levels of interference by which to achieve suspect self-interests unto the Federal Dole] . . . “
Such may even walk-about with utmost creative energies to [corral] “various states, state and local agencies, tribal agencies, private sector organizations, public officers, attorneys, legislators and judicial officers” by dirtying each and every of their hands with tainted remnants from their having actively or passively assisted (either individually or collectively) in the
“picking of pockets and bleeding of hearts of Children, in the name of Children.”
By irrationally rationalizing their self-believed (actually, of false dicta) entitlements (actually, addictions) to the Federal Dole, the NOW new cycles of modernly shaped and politically correct abuses may tempt perpetual sustenance – as thought there even exists such notion as a perpetual motion machine or free lunch.
In my humble opinion, a single legged stool represents not as the three-legged model of our founding; but rather, it may represent as a grave risk to more stable and otherwise more honorable forms of civil and dignified American democracy. Further, when it takes upon the Pinocchio effect, the single legged stool may more truly appear but as an utter joke, disgrace and embarrassment.
With sincerity of expression and spirit of free speech,
- just adad
5 kramse // Jun 27, 2007 at 12:00 pm
JessiessDad, your case sound so much like mine but with one exception - sans the sex abuse allegations. I am so sorry that your child’s mother is a heartless idiot who’s blinded to the problems she is causing her child so that she can inflict harm on you. My ex (used to) keep me from seeing my children but with no recourse in the courts for me and them even if I had a court order of visitation (which took almost 6 months to get) Thankfully, she had a lawyer that finally told her to cut it out. So, courts and law enforcement officers always ignore court-ordered visitation violations. HOWEVER, I recently did not provide a W-2 for my military income (I am a army reservist) and because of this, was threatened with jail. $140,000 in child support in 6 years and because I did not provide a W-2 for $12K in income, I was inches away from being jailed.
My friend, we can only stand against this absurdity effectively if we stand together. Join ANCPR and ACFC (if you haven’t already) and join local affiliates to affect change in state legislatures. Signed, almost bankrupt in Illinois (aka NOW land)
You must log in to post a comment.