This is one story I couldnt pass up posting

[reeb]

Deadbeat Parents:

They got off easy, but the Judge gave them an opportunity vice Jail. Heck you cant pay support while in Jail.

Friday, January 09, 2004


DAYTON -- Dewey Messer, who turned 42 on Dec. 28, was the first defendant called Thursday to the front of Judge John W. Kessler's new Non-Support Court. Messer became the standard by which the remaining 22 men were judged.

Messer, nursing his left arm in an elastic bandage, shuffled to face Kessler, who had just announced that the goal of his court is "to ensure entitled recipients get the support they are entitled to."

Staring down from the Montgomery County Common Pleas bench, Kessler spared Messer any social formalities.

"Frankly, of all the histories of failure I've reviewed, yours is the worst," Kessler told Messer. "I see absolutely no excuse for you to not comply."

During the last year, Messer paid nothing, neither a penny toward his monthly support payments of $310 nor a cent to reduce $13,900 in missed past payments from prior years, Kessler said.

"I will give you an opportunity to think about it," Kessler said. He ordered Messer to serve three days in the county jail with daily assignments to the sheriff's work detail this weekend.

"I'm under a doctor's care. I can't work!" Messer pleaded. He pointed to his bandaged arm.

"I don't see anything wrong with your other hand," Kessler said. "You can pick things up with your other hand."

Kessler took complete control, waving off a defense attorney one offender had brought.

"You have no place here," Kessler told him.

An hour later, Kessler had finished reviewing the cases of 22 other men convicted of felony nonsupport. No one else went to jail, a couple are already in jail and a couple now have warrants for their arrests. Together, they represent about one-10th of all defendants in Montgomery County who are on probation for felony nonsupport.

Some men reported they had started part-time or full-time jobs. Others brought cash or checks to make their first payments in months. Their monthly payments ranged from $100 a month to more than $400 a month. Many owed more than $10,000, with obligations to pay as little as $10 or $15 toward the amounts owed plus monthly payments established by juvenile or domestic relations courts.

Kessler will re-convene his court at 11 a.m. every other Thursday. On his first day, only male offenders were summoned, but women are expected at future sessions.