O.C. Collections Slowly Improve

Despite recent improvements in Orange County’s child-support system, not a dime is being collected in nearly 85% of the cases handled by the district attorney’s office.

Collections have almost doubled since 1995--when an outside audit commissioned by the Board of Supervisors found child-support enforcement in the county severely wanting--rising to $98.6 million this past year from $53.6 million in 1994-95. The percentage of cases in which money is being collected has improved by 50%, although that still represents only about 15% of all cases where support is needed, now at 145,000 cases. Nearly 40% of Orange County cases are welfare referrals. When a parent applies for welfare, he or she is required to name the noncustodial parent, information that is automatically forwarded to the district attorney’s office to seek child support. In non-welfare cases, the custodial parent must ask for help.

This year, the office of family support met minimum state requirements for child-support enforcement for the first time since the state began holding counties accountable under a standardized system in 1990.

Michael R. Capizzi, Orange County’s district attorney, last week called the result a “milestone event.” Those critical of the child support division point out that the county barely squeaked by in the self-administered audit, scoring just over the 75% minimum passing grade. The score--based on the number of fathers established in out-of-wedlock births, and the collection and distribution of payments--still has to be confirmed by the state.

Tales of Woe Fill Corridor

But in the brightly lit corridors at the Family Law Court in the city of Orange, those caught up in the system seem unconcerned about the county’s grade.

“I’m going to write a book called, ‘How Much Justice Can You Afford?,’ ” said one woman who has been fighting her ex-husband on child support and visitation issues for 10 years. She said she feels like no one in the court system cares. Her ex-husband, she said, works only part time in order to keep his court-ordered payments low. She has to ask her ex-husband for reimbursement for medical expenses that she said the court has ordered him to pay. Each time he doesn’t pay, she must go to a judge for a court order against her ex-husband before she can ask the district attorney to enforce it.

“What good is an order that you can’t enforce without continually going to a lawyer?” she said.

Her daughter--whose court-ordered child support from the woman’s second husband took more than a year and half to be enforced--stretched out on one of the built-in benches with a Donald Duck comforter for a cover and a well-worn stuffed bear for a pillow.

“My kids are the ones who have suffered,” she said.

Horror stories are nothing new in these halls.

Custodial parents have been driven to bankruptcy when support ordered for their children went uncollected.

Noncustodial parents have been left without enough money to live after their wages were attached.

“Custodial parents complain that we aren’t doing enough and noncustodial parents complain that we are harassing them,” said Sue Delarue, who has headed the family support office for the past three years. Delarue said stories like that of the woman mentioned above are not unusual but that her office must use the law as a guideline for enforcement, which she acknowledged may seem cold to those torn apart in these human dramas.

Troubles Plague Collection System

While Orange County has been nearly twice as efficient as Los Angeles County in collecting child support--taking in $4.21 for every dollar spent on enforcement--the system is troubled in many of the same ways.

Some who have worked in the system for years say little works as it should.

“There is real abuse going on,” said Jack Kayajanian, a defense attorney who has worked in Orange County for 25 years.

Kayajanian last year sued the district attorney on behalf of accused fathers who did not have the money to pay for an attorney. Kayajanian argued that in child-support cases the courts should be required to provide an attorney for parents who cannot afford one.

According to Kayajanian, the increased power of the child support office to go after deadbeats--which include wage assessments, tax intercepts, revocation of drivers and professional licenses--made child-support cases an exception in the realm of civil law. Accused deadbeats, Kayajanian said, are at risk of losing their liberty and therefore were entitled to free representation.

The Court of Appeals disagreed, even while addressing the fundamental flaw of the system.

“Strictly speaking, the statute is impossible to read,” wrote Presiding Justice David Sills, adding the emphasis.

For those caught up in the system, the experience can be overwhelming.

Phil Rowlands, 46, says his dealings with the Orange County district attorney have little to do with what he thought the American justice system is all about.

“I feel like I have a pit bull attached to my ankle,” said Rowlands, a stay-at-home father who has lived in South Pasadena since the early 1980s.

Rowland’s case is a study in everything that can go wrong with the system. The child in question, now 13, has never received a penny of paternal support even though she was entered into the system while still in her mother’s womb.

Rowlands, a drummer in a rock band that used to play the Orange County bar circuit, has always maintained he is not the father. He went to court in 1985 to ask for a lawyer and said he was told the district attorney would be in touch when one became available. Just last year, after 11 years of believing the issue was resolved, he learned that Orange County had gotten a default judgment of paternity against him in 1987 after a letter sent to his address was returned to sender.

Now, the man who cares for an 8-year-old son full time says he is in danger of losing everything. He and his longtime girlfriend live in modest one-bedroom cottage. Orange County has informed him he owes at least $20,000 in back child support--money that represents a portion of the welfare funds that have gone to support the child over the years.

He is also dealing with back child support Riverside County says he owes them for the same child. In the Riverside case, Rowlands paid for a blood test, which the letter sent to him clearly stated he could request. But Orange County stopped the test from being performed, saying Rowlands has been the legal father of the girl since 1987, regardless of the biological facts.

“I feel like this isn’t about justice or the truth,” said Rowlands, who said he always has been listed in the phone book and could have been found had the district attorney’s office tried. “It’s about the district attorney winning and I don’t know who has been helped by this. If a convicted murderer is later found to be innocent, they do set him free.”

Additional Staff Work on Backlog

Delarue said Rowland’s real beef is with the courts, not her office.

“We don’t make the law, we support the law,” she said. “If he has been found to be the legal father, we must seek child support from him. We follow the direction of the courts.”

The Orange County district attorney’s office this year took an important step in resolving tough cases such as Rowlands’ in a more timely manner. With a $1.3-million grant from the state, the child support office was able to hire night clerks to go through and update existing cases. About 23,000 cases were closed last year under state guidelines and 18,000 more have been closed through August of this year--undoubtedly improving the county’s score on the state audit. The office opens about 1,500 cases each month.

Perhaps more significant for Orange County children, the grant has made it possible for the county to aggressively go after deadbeats for the first time in years. Two attorneys, two investigators and additional support staff began work this month on hard to enforce cases.

“These cases are very labor intensive,” said Delarue, who said her office believes that in the nine-month grant period new staff will be able to take a closer look at 900 cases where the noncustodial parent is so behind in payment he or she could be found in contempt of court.

Delarue said the office has come a long way and still has a longer way to go. Satisfaction, she said, comes in individual cases.

“I get an awful lot of thank yous from people saying; ‘What you did mattered to me and to my kids,’ ” Delarue said.