Corruption in Child Suport - Hands in the child support cookie jar

[Bolivar]

----- Original Message -----

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 5:16 AM

Subject: Hands in the child support cookie jar

The child support enforcement bureaucracy is rife with embezzlement and
corruption.  The bureaucracy is so big, and so much cash changes hands,
that there is bound to be significant problems with greed, extortion and
embezzlement.

A couple of years ago, a Philadelphia child support caseworker as convicted for stealing more than $8,000 in cash from child support payors.  The payors were being jailed and were arguing that they'd paid in cash and showed receipts.  It is believed that more than 1 person was involved in stealing child support payments.

There are stories from around the country about this.  A clerk in NJ was
convicted of embezzling over $40,000 in all types of funds, including child
support payments.


Bruce Eden, Director, Fathers Rights Association of New Jersey &
Mid-Atlantic Region

DADS (Dads Against Discrimination)--New Jersey & New York Chapters


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http://www.bgdailynews.com/articles/sections/main/

Hearing set to allow plea change

By Jim Gaines, [email protected] -- 270-783-3242

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Former Warren County Attorney Mike Caudill's hearing to change his plea on  federal charges to guilty was set in a quick phone conversation with U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell in Paducah this morning.
Caudill, facing a federal embezzlement charge as well as two state theft
charges, was represented by his attorney and longtime friend, local lawyer
David Broderick.

"Mr. Caudill's hearing on a change of plea is going to be Feb. 8 at 12
o'clock," Broderick said today.

Caudill served as county attorney for 25 years, but resigned April 1.
Beginning in February 2004, the Kentucky Attorney General's Office Public
Corruption Unit, in conjunction with local police agencies, searched
Caudill's office three times while investigating allegations of misuse of
funds.

He resigned his law license under terms of permanent disbarment, and
agreed to change his pleas to guilty in return for a recommended sentence.

The federal government's offer to settle, made last fall, specifies one
count of embezzling money "belonging to the United States or under a
program contracted by the United States."

Caudill, as county attorney, contracted to perform child-support
collection work for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services. He
received about $4,000 a month from January 2001 through March 2004 for
time allegedly worked on child support cases ¬ but was submitting false
invoices for his time, and took more than $15,000 for work he didn't do,  according to James Vines, acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

The crime is federal because Caudill was paid with federal funds channeled
through the state.

The charge carries a recommended sentence of 10 to 16 months in prison,
but the final decision is up to federal district court.

Caudill would have to serve at least half the minimum term of
imprisonment, not including a halfway house, home detention or community  confinement. Federal prosecutors agreed not to oppose Caudill's request to  be in the closest prison to Bowling Green that his security level allows.

He agreed to pay $15,000 restitution to CHFS child support, $138.88 per
month for nine years.

The deal contains no agreement on fines and costs. The class C felony can
carry a fine up to $250,000 and no more than three years of supervised
release.

Another plea deal from November dealt with two state counts of theft by
unlawful taking over $300, a class D felony that carries a one- to
five-year sentence.

The first count alleges that between July 1, 2002, and Nov. 13, 2003,
Caudill collected fees for bad checks as county attorney, depositing them  in an office account, and transferred $56,100 from the bad-check account into his private business checking account.

The second state count dealt with a November 2000 personal-injury lawsuit  in which Caudill represented Wallace Charles Meeks of Smiths Grove as a private attorney. As part of that case's settlement, Caudill put $8,000 in  escrow to pay liens by Medicare and Anthem Insurance Co.

Between June 20, 2003, and Nov. 6, 2003, he transferred that money in four  increments into his business checking account, the plea deal states.

Caudill agreed to serve a one-year sentence on each count. The sentences
will run concurrently and with his federal sentence on embezzlement charges.

He will be required to repay $56,100 to Warren County Fiscal Court, plus
any further money found to be missing from the county attorney's
delinquent-tax payment account.

Caudill will pay $300 per month until he sells any property in which he
has an interest. That money will go first to the state.

After a hearing Dec. 8 in Warren Circuit Court at which the signed plea
agreement was presented, Caudill was released on a $5,000 unsecured bond.

Caudill is still recuperating from an Oct. 14 stroke, and is trying to
strengthen himself enough to undergo heart surgery, according to Broderick.

The hearing Feb. 8 will finalize Caudill's federal plea agreement, he said.
"And then we'll wait for sentencing in both courts," Broderick said.
Sentencing dates will be set after the Feb. 8 hearing, he said.

[MYSONSDAD]

When you compare this to what a father is jailed for in regard to non-support, they are getting off pretty light...

FEATHER LIGHT

"Children learn what they live"