THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 16, 1994 TAG: 9407160236
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
A judge on Friday carried out his 7-month-old threat to jail former millionaire R. Alan Fuentes for failure to pay $29,000 in child support.
Fuentes, a businessman who avoided jail in 1992 after a federal election-law conviction, was led out of the courtroom Friday in handcuffs. A crowd of about 20 husbands, wives and lawyers, awaiting their divorce and support hearings, watched.
A few minutes later, people who did not know Fuentes patted his former wife on the back and offered words of support.
During the hearing, Barbara Fuentes had urged the judge to jail her former husband.
``He should be punished,'' she said. ``He hasn't made the effort to pay. . excuses.''
Alan Fuentes had an explanation Friday. He said he had a new job - his first in 2 1/2 years - and could pay $600 to $700 a month in support for his 8-year-old son. His court-ordered child support is $1,500 a month.
``I beg you not to send me to prison,'' Fuentes told Circuit Judge Alan E. Rosenblatt. ``Just a little more time and I'll have this episode behind me.''
But Rosenblatt had heard enough. He ordered Fuentes to jail immediately and said the founder of Computer Dynamics Inc. would stay there until he pays up.
``The court finds that you have the ability to work, but you have not worked,'' Rosenblatt told Fuentes. ``You have the ability, despite what Mr. McKenry (Fuentes' lawyer) says, to purge yourself of the contempt. You have the ability to at least make a good-faith effort, and you have not done any of those things.''
With that, a deputy sheriff clicked the handcuffs on Fuentes' wrists and led the 44-year-old businessman - dressed in a gray suit, white shirt and yellow tie - into an adjacent lockup.
As Fuentes was led away, his attorney, James R. McKenry, argued desperately for bond so his client could appeal. ``It's debtor's prison!'' McKenry declared.
Rosenblatt did not budge. ``I don't believe bond is called for in this situation,'' he said.
It is unusual, but not rare, for a judge to send a nonpaying father to jail. About 10 percent of such cases result in jail time, said Bob Osburn, a spokesman for the state Social Services Department.
Divorce lawyers at the Virginia Beach courthouse Friday agreed. ``You're seeing that more and more,'' lawyer Bobby W. Davis said. ``Judges aren't letting these guys skate anymore.''
It is impossible to know how long Fuentes will remain in jail or how he will pay his debt.
Fuentes filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in Bankruptcy Court in November. Since then, he has been selling expensive assets - including a Rolex watch, a diamond ring and gold coins - for living expenses. His white limousine has been repossessed.
But Fuentes still lives in a heavily mortgaged $1.5 million waterfront home in Little Neck. He still owns 30 percent of Computer Dynamics, a Virginia Beach company that services computers and runs a string of computer schools.
A bank is trying to foreclose on the house for failure to pay a $10,000-a-month mortgage. And a bankruptcy trustee may force Fuentes to sell his company stock at auction.
In court Friday, Barbara Fuentes, 41, who lives outside Richmond with their son, said her ex-husband recently bought a $5,000 diamond ring for his girlfriend. The money could have paid for their son's private-school tuition, she said.
Indeed, the main issue Friday was Fuentes' ability to pay.
McKenry argued, ``Mr. Fuentes is absolutely broke.'' He said Fuentes cannot borrow money from friends because a bankruptcy trustee won't let him.
The judge shot back, ``He could work, couldn't he? A lot of people do that every day.''
McKenry responded that Fuentes did have a new job as a consultant to the Heritage Institute, a local defense consulting firm run by a friend. The job pays $2,000 a month, so Fuentes could pay $600 to $700 a month in support for his son, the lawyer said.
Fuentes has been unemployed since January 1992, when he left Computer Dynamics after pleading guilty to making $14,000 in illegal campaign contributions to then-U.S. Sen. Paul Trible.
Fuentes could face new problems in that case, too.
Fuentes' sentence in the Trible case included two years in prison, suspended on condition of three years' good behavior. At sentencing, U.S. District Judge John A. MacKenzie warned Fuentes that if he got into any more trouble, ``You will just have to show up here with your toothbrush.''
MacKenzie could revoke Fuentes' probation and send him to prison if he believes that Friday's contempt-of-court conviction is a violation of Fuentes' probation, said Barbara Fuentes' attorney, G. Ronald Grubbs.
``It's the judge's discretion,'' Grubbs said. ``I don't know if he would, but he could.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Fuentes
BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
KEYWORDS: CHILD SUPPORT DEADBEAT DAD SENTENCE by CNB