Amnesty Due for Parents Behind in Child Support

The Orange County district attorney’s office has agreed to participate with prosecutors from five other counties in granting amnesty to parents delinquent in child support payments if they make satisfactory arrangements to pay in the next two months.

The amnesty program will begin Sunday to coincide with Father’s Day and will continue through Aug. 16.

Parents who don’t take advantage of the amnesty could be caught in a major sweep planned by the district attorney’s office immediately after the Aug. 16 deadline, according to Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard E. Fulton, coordinator for his office’s part in the amnesty program.

Charges will be filed against parents whose payments are delinquent, even by a month, and who don’t pay the debt in full in the two-month amnesty period or make arrangements to pay it.

Program Experimental

Fulton said the program is experimental.

“We have no idea if we’ll get a lot of people to come in or just a few,” Fulton said. “But we hope it will bring in a lot of money for some of these kids who aren’t getting the support they need.”

Orange County has about 20,000 cases of parents under court order to pay child support, all but a tiny minority of them fathers whose children are in the custody of former wives or estranged wives. About 62% of those 20,000 are delinquent at present, Fulton said.

“Some of them are just a month behind, but some are a year behind,” Fulton said. “Some just don’t pay anything at all.”

Under the amnesty program, delinquent parents are expected to come in to the district attorney’s office on the first floor of the courthouse in downtown Santa Ana or call a special hotline, (714) 834-4600, to make arrangements to clear back payments.

The amnesty doesn’t apply to those who can’t afford to clear up back payments but want to start fresh and make payments, Fulton said. But he encouraged those people to come in anyway.

“We’ll sit down with them and help them work something out,” Fulton said.

Offenders May Be Freed

Fulton added that anyone who is in jail now for failing to pay child support may be freed if that person comes forward to make back payments during the amnesty period.

“We try to keep fathers who owe child support out of jail so that they can work and make their payments,” Fulton said. “Usually, they don’t go to jail unless they’re just refusing to make any payments at all.”

The test program has been approved by the state Health and Welfare Agency and the state Department of Social Services. It will be implemented in Orange, Riverside, Ventura, Kern, Santa Cruz and Sacramento counties. Officials at a news conference in Los Angeles Thursday estimated that more than $850 million in delinquent payments is outstanding across the state.

State officials credited Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred and former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Robert Philibosian with suggesting the program to the Health and Welfare Agency.

“This project marks a new era in child-support enforcement and will succeed because it will include a massive public education campaign to educate parents about their legal duty to support their children,” Allred said.

Word to Go Out

Word about the amnesty program will be spread through public service announcements on radio and television, posters, billboards and bumper stickers.

Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, whose office has been arresting delinquent fathers this week, has said the amnesty plan is “not practicable.”

Orange County prosecutor Fulton said his office has received calls from people about Reiner’s sweeping arrests.

“Some people want to know why Los Angeles is putting these guys in jail and we’re giving them amnesty,” Fulton said. “We tell them we’re going to give this a try first. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll do what Los Angeles is doing.”