It was pleasing to see that the child support agencies are beginning to cannabalize their own government officials. In a recent article published (see below) by the Houston Chronicle, Representative Dutton was ordered to pay back child support despite many of the children involved not even living at home. It does always please me when a bureaucracy becomes so large that it begins eating its own. It is definitely time to reign in these various bureaucracies so they only focus on the nation's most needy instead of focusing on middle and upper income feuding families. The proof is in the report below as well as http://www.nationwideblueprint.com.
I would obviously encourage those advocates that believe in the same downsizing of our supersized government to write the dear Rep. Dutton and spread some of the information from these sites.
Dece 12, 2007 Rep. Dutton ordered to pay back child support. (Copyright Houston Chronicle 2007)
A Harris County family court has awarded the ex-wife of state Rep. Harold Dutton Jr. nearly $16,000, finding the state legislator was in arrears on court-ordered child support payments.
But the court declined to hold the Houston Democrat in contempt for those late payments, rejecting his ex-wife's attempts to have him thrown into jail.
Dutton, an attorney, also was ordered to pay an additional $8,000 in legal fees to his former wife's lawyer in the ruling issued Friday by Associate Judge Conrad Moren.
Dutton has long been embroiled in a bitter legal fight with Phyllis Faykus-Dutton, the mother of four of his sons. Their divorce was finalized in 1995, but they have butted heads in court repeatedly since then.
In court papers, she has accused her ex-husband of trying to shirk his child support obligations. But Dutton said he fell behind on the payments because the original court order was "ambiguous" and failed to stipulate how his payments would change when his sons turned 18 or if they moved in with him.
Three of their sons are now living away from home, attending various universities.
A conflict of interest?
"The reason I didn't pay (child support) is because I wanted the court to tell me how much to pay — because I didn't want her to have one nickel she wasn't entitled to," the state legislator said from his Houston law office on Tuesday.
Dutton is chairman of the House Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues, which occasionally oversees child support issues and other civil law matters relating to families.
In court documents earlier this year, Faykus-Dutton accused her ex-husband of introducing several legislative amendments that would personally benefit him in matters before the family court deciding his case.
Last month, Faykus-Dutton asked that the state legislator be jailed and fined for each failure to comply with the child support order. She also asked that he be placed on probation for 10 years after his release.
She accused her ex-husband of failing to make some child support payments dating back to 1999. In recent months, when he was expected to pay $1,500 a month, Harold Dutton had paid only $400 or sometimes not at all, she alleged in court papers.
"Certainly, he, as an attorney and a legislator who sets policy, needs to comply with a court order," said Myrna Davila Gregory, the attorney representing Dutton's ex-wife. "He needs to follow a court order, just like every mother or father who pays child support is required to do."
Dutton suggested that he would not have fallen behind on the payments if a ruling had been issued promptly when he questioned the ambiguity of the original court order.
Custody issue raised
He also countered that his ex-wife became angry when he recently sought custody of their youngest son, who will turn 14 later this month.
"She is trying to muddy the water because she wants to figure out everything she can do to damage me," Dutton said.
Dutton said he sought custody of the youngest boy and filed a complaint with Harris County Child Protective Services after learning the teen had allegedly been "violently whipped" with a leather belt by his mother's live-in boyfriend.
The judge Friday declined to grant Dutton temporary custody of the boy, but Dutton said he expects the issue will be revisited at a Jan. 8 hearing. For now, the teen remains with his mother.
The court battle between the former spouses has sometimes taken surprising turns.
For instance, Dutton claimed in court papers last month that his gross earnings total $600 a month and his monthly net income after deductions is $250.
Dutton, who has seven children by various women, testified last week that he is planning to adopt another child. The 3-year-old girl he wants to adopt belongs to a woman he used to date, who asked Dutton to be the child's father, he said.
Dutton also testified he is engaged to be married to another woman — not the mother of the 3-year-old girl.
"I guess my question to him was, you're adopting another child and you can't pay child support for the kids you already have?" Gregory said on Tuesday.
Attorneys are scheduled to return to court on Friday, when the judge's rulings will be officially spelled out in a court order.
Dutton, 62, was first elected to his post in 1985 and is one of the longest-serving members of the Texas House.
This type of reporting is irresponsible.
But then so are most newspapers for not covering the nation's busiest courts. The one court used most often, and for the longest period of time. Families are but a fuel source for the divorce and custody industry. Details at www.FamilyLawCourts.com