1989'S DEADBEAT DAD SENTENCED TO YEAR IN JAIL

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993                   TAG: 9303110267
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short
1989'S DEADBEAT DAD SENTENCED TO YEAR IN JAIL
A minister who was Virginia's No. 1 deadbeat dad in 1989 has been sentenced to a year in jail for failing to pay more than $75,000 in child support and alimony.
Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Charles E. Poston offered the Rev. Anthony Eugene Ray the opportunity to pay $10,000 Tuesday to avoid jail, but Ray didn't have the money.
Ray, however, has paid nearly $20,000 since July 1991. His attorney, J. Hugo Madison, said the jail sentence will be appealed to Circuit Court.
Ray's former wife, who asked not to be identified, said jail was probably the best punishment, but that she might be better off if he had been placed on a work-release program.
"I feel sorry for him in a lot of ways," she said. "At one point in my life I truly despised him, but now I can't hate him. I just feel sorry for him."
She said she has two daughters, ages 12 and 15. Ray, 38, "just vanished" in 1982 after less than five years of marriage, the former wife said.
Ray was ordered to pay $800 a month in child support and alimony, but by 1989 he was at the top of the "Ten Most Wanted" list compiled by the Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB