A man who owes over $100,000 in child support payments and is also one of the 10 Most Wanted child support payment evaders wanted by Los Angeles County has been located and arrested through a pilot program introduced by Supervisor Don Knabe last year.
Kenneth John was arrested Friday morning in the driveway of his San Fernando Valley home and booked at the LAPD Van Nuys station because of an outstanding warrant and an outstanding child support balance of $112,369.71. John has a current support obligation is $481 per month; he was also ordered by the court to make payments of $119 per month toward the liquidation of his arrears. He last made a payment in 2002.
There has been a warrant outstanding for John’s arrest since October 2003. The warrant was issued for his failure to surrender to the Sheriff to serve 60 days in jail as ordered by the court. In addition to the 60 day sentence, John is also facing an additional 120 day suspended sentence.
John was successfully tracked down and arrested by two specialized agents working with the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department. Funding for the agents and their pilot program was initiated by Supervisor Knabe in April 2007. Knabe’s motion sought to crackdown on hundreds of the County’s most heinous child support payment evaders by establishing a partnership between the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department (CSSD) and the Office of the District Attorney.
CSSD goes to great lengths to pursue collection of child support payments on behalf of families in need, and always seeks to establish cooperative relationships with the parent required to make payments. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of parents currently in the County’s system who also go to great lengths to evade their child support obligations, even after arrest warrants have been issued for their arrest.
There are approximately 2,000 parents who fall into this category, and they owe over $2.5 million in child support payments. Before Supervisor Knabe secured $500,000 to launch the current program, CSSD did not have the means to proactively serve these warrants and seek out these parents. Under this new partnership with the District Attorney, CSSD is utilizing District Attorney Investigators to pursue these 2,000 parents.
Far too many families are struggling to pay their bills because people like Mr. John are choosing to evade or ignore their responsibilities, said Supervisor Knabe. I am very pleased to hear of the success our program is having in tracking down these uncooperative parents and getting them to pay their child support obligations.