ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996 TAG: 9608190016
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNDA TROUTT MURPHY
STEVE RIBBLE (Aug. 10 letter to the editor, ``In child-custody cases, the father's story is rarely told'') believes the Child Support Recovery Act of 1992 is flawed and that it should have never become law. He's right about its being flawed, but wrong in saying it should never have become law.
It's a good start in correcting inadequacies of state laws that have no force over persons in another state. In the judicial system, it may encounter challenges, but it is a deterrent to parents who behave as James D. Murphy Jr. did. It also gives the custodial parent and support-enforcement staff a new tool to track absent parents with a means to collect support.
In 1983, Murphy walked away from my daughter, Erin, a 12-year relationship and our family-owned business. Erin was only 2 years old. He moved to Texas. Contrary to Ribble's insinuation that the divorce was granted in Texas, the divorce was granted in Oklahoma.
This wasn't the first time Murphy had walked away from his children. Erin has two older half-sisters, born to different mothers in New York They never received any support from their father. There was no way to collect it since he moved from state to state so often. It wasn't a financial burden; he just refused to pay.
Following his departure, I stayed in Oklahoma and tried to rebuild my life as a single parent. No support was paid, and he didn't visit Erin more than a couple of times for a few hours. She spent one night with him before he left the state. In 1985, I filed for divorce in Oklahoma City. He was supposed to pay the Oklahoma courts, but never paid a dime. Murphy signed the decree while living in Texas. After the divorce was final, Erin and I moved to Roanoke to be closer to my family.
Four years after he left, I received the first child-support payment. Other payments were sporadic and not consistent in the amount. Therefore, in October 1988, I filed a Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act petition with the Virginia Department of Support Enforcement. It took two years for this petition to work its way through the system. I contacted every senator and member of Congress between here and Texas for help. Finally, in October 1990, a new judgment was awarded from Texas. The judgment garnished the support from his wages. In 1991, he quit his job in Texas and moved to Florida. Texas did nothing to track Murphy to see that he paid child support, nor did it notify Virginia or me that he no longer resided in that state.
In November 1991, I filed another URESA petition in Virginia (this time for the state of Florida). It took five months to verify his address and get the matter to court. I wrote letters, made phone calls and chased him all over Florida. Each time I informed enforcement officers of his address, but when they got close, he moved.
Murphy moved to New York in 1994. A child-support worker in Jacksonville, Fla., helped me track him down. I told my Virginia caseworker that he was living in Olcott, N.Y., rent-free in his sister's home. Murphy didn't have utilities, phone or any other information in his name, thus avoiding being tracked by the system.
Over the years, I made a lot of noise about the lack of laws to enforce support payments from state to state. I wrote hundreds of letters and made numerous phone calls to congressmen and others. I saw the laws and political climate become more favorable toward collecting support. Too many tax dollars go for Aid for Dependent Children to compensate for those parents who feel they can get away with not being responsible for their children.
A reporter in Buffalo did several articles on Murphy in 1994 while he was in New York, and got his side of the story. He informed Murphy that he was on Virginia's ``10 Most Wanted'' list. Murphy contacted my caseworker in September 1994, and agreed to make two payments by Sept. 26 and to send a lump sum by Oct. 1. She told him paperwork was being processed by the federal government under the Child Support Recovery Act of 1992. He tried to have her withdraw the paperwork, but she refused. By Oct. 8, he left New York without informing the Department of Support Enforcement. He told the reporter he planned to go to Texas, but he went back to Florida. No support was paid.
On Jan. 22, 1995, the FBI arrested him in Bradenton, Fla., and he was charged under the federal law for willfully avoiding child-support payments by moving from state to state. In February, he made a payment for the first time in almost four years. Without the federal arrest as a deterrent, not one penny would have come this way.
Erin saw her father for the first time in six years at the federal court in Roanoke on April 10, 1995. When he came to court in May 1995, he paid full restitution on back child support. However, Erin's great-uncle wrote the check. In August 1995, Murphy was convicted of willfully avoiding support payments, and was sentenced to five years probation.
In the 131/2 years he has been gone, he has spent, on average, about three days per year with his daughter. He chose not to participate in her life.
Our society is very mobile, and we need laws that address that mobility. A support judgment should be honored in any state court, regardless of its origin. The Child Support Recovery Act of 1992 is an effort to address the difficulty of collecting support across state lines.
Lynda Troutt Murphy of Roanoke is financial-service coordinator for Roanoke County.
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