Parents in Texas who are not in a relationship with one another generally still need to provide for their children. Often, this means one parent will make child support payments to the other, custodial parent. These payments are vital for children’s well-being and development. If the paying parent cannot make proper payments, it can have a detrimental effect on an entire family, especially if payments haven’t been made for quite some time. This is what authorities in one state claim about a man who was tried for his failure to pay child support.
The local attorney general’s office handled the case. Authorities claim that the father in question owed $117,000 in back child support. They took him to court and charged him with three felony counts of nonsupport of a child. They say that he did not make proper payments for seven years. He pleaded guilty and was ordered by a judge to repay the amount.
In addition to having to pay the overdue child support, the man was also given a five-year suspended sentence with post-release supervision for each of his felony counts. The court decided to have the sentences run concurrently. There is no word on exactly how law enforcement was able to track down this particular individual. Some parents will turn themselves in, while others are apprehended as part of a task force investigation and still others are brought in by other means.
Some parents fail to make their child support payments because they have had a change in their financial circumstances. Other parents refuse to pay due to a disagreement with the other parent. No matter what the reason may be, it doesn’t change the fact that children need the payments to thrive. Any parents who are having difficulty collecting or paying their child support may want to enlist the assistance of an attorney here in Texas to ensure that children receive proper care.
