THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 2, 1994 TAG: 9407020574
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
R. Alan Fuentes, the businessman who raced speedboats with Pete Rose and founded a multimillion-dollar computer company, came within seconds of being jailed Friday for failing to pay $29,000 in child support.
Circuit Judge Alan E. Rosenblatt gave Fuentes a blistering lecture on a father's responsibility. He ordered Fuentes to rise and accept sentence, then declared him in contempt of court as a deputy moved in to take Fuentes into custody.
And then, at the last possible moment, Fuentes was spared - at least temporarily - with a payment offer from his attorney.
``I'm trying to give the man a chance,'' lawyer James R. McKenry said.
Even then, Rosenblatt wasn't sure. He left the decision - jail or no jail - to Fuentes' ex-wife. She spent 20 minutes agonizing, teary-eyed, but could not decide.
In the end, the judge decided, reluctantly, to delay sentencing two weeks. If Fuentes does not pay by then, he will be jailed indefinitely until he makes good, Rosenblatt said.
Minutes earlier, Rosenblatt gave Fuentes a scathing lecture on his duties to his 8-year-old son. In doing so, the judge referred back to a statement Fuentes made earlier, that he is ``an entrepreneur.''
``Mr. Fuentes, you are also a father,'' the judge said. ``You have a responsibility under the law - if not a moral one, too - to do everything you can to support your child.''
Fuentes, 44, has been unemployed since January 1992, when he pleaded guilty to a felony - funneling illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Paul Trible through some employees. Fuentes also had to give up control of his company, Computer Dynamics Inc.
Since then, Fuentes has been fighting in court to win back the company, which has about 470 employees nationwide. In December, Fuentes filed for Chapter 11 protection in Bankruptcy Court. He may soon be forced into Chapter 7 liquidation.
His ex-wife, 41-year-old Barbara Fuentes, lives in suburban Richmond with their son.
The two were married for three years. One condition of their 1988 divorce is that Fuentes pay $1,500 a month in child support, plus private-school tuition.
Fuentes now owes his ex-wife $29,787, plus $4,600 in back tuition. Barbara Fuentes' attorney, Ronald Grubbs of Richmond, said the boy cannot return to the private school because of the delinquent payments.
While Fuentes was falling behind in child support - from October 1992 to September 1993 - Grubbs said $300,000 passed through Fuentes' checking account. Grubbs said Fuentes simply spent the money on other things.
But Fuentes said he had many expensive obligations at the time, including a mortgage of nearly $10,000 a month on his $1 million waterfront home in Little Neck, where he still lives.
Now, Fuentes testified, ``All my major assets have been sold some time ago.''
This was not the first time Fuentes was tried for contempt of court. In December, Rosenblatt ruled there was enough evidence to find contempt, but he withheld judgment to give Fuentes time to catch up. In the six months since then, Fuentes has made one payment of $1,400.
Meanwhile, Fuentes has applied for work at a travel agency and a defense contractor, both owned by friends, but was refused. With his felony record, he cannot work for defense contractors, and other kinds of work are impractical, he said.
Fuentes said he spends 10 to 12 hours a day on legal matters, mainly trying to win back his company and enforce a $250,000-a-year employment contract by his old company.
``I simply don't have time to go out and flip hamburgers for minimum wage,'' Fuentes told the judge.
But Rosenblatt was blunt. He said he thought his December ruling would shake up Fuentes and ``get him to move, to do something.'' Instead, the judge said, ``He still has done nothing about finding employment.''
The judge urged Fuentes to do anything, even sell encyclopedias door-to-door. As he was about to sentence Fuentes to jail, Rosenblatt said, ``If this is what it's going to take to get you to do something about supporting your son, so be it.''
But at that moment, Fuentes' attorney offered a bargain: Give Fuentes two months to pay his back support, plus a 10 percent penalty and lawyers fees, or he would report to jail for 60 days.
Instead, Rosenblatt gave Fuentes until July 15 - two weeks - to come up with the money. If he doesn't, the judge said, ``he will be sent to jail until he purges himself'' - that is, makes back payments.
After court, Fuentes said he will spend the time looking for a buyer for his Computer Dynamics stock. Fuentes still owns 30 percent of the company, but a bankruptcy trustee would have to approve the sale. ILLUSTRATION: R. Alan Fuentes has two weeks to pay his $29,000 child support
bill.
KEYWORDS: CHILD SUPPORT TRIAL by CNB