A child support hearing officer wrongly ordered the arrest of a man who failed to pay his support, an appellate court ruled recently.

Sencoa Crawford, a 30-year-old man who owed nearly $11,000, argued he couldn’t afford the bill. He had applied to 30 different jobs, he said, but he lacked transportation and couldn’t find any work other than his recent stints with a temp agency that paid $9.30 an hour. Regardless, his hearing officer said he was in contempt of court and ordered him arrested. Hearing officers don’t have the right to declare people in contempt of court, Crawford’s attorney argued; only a circuit judge can do that. “Thank you for bringing that to my attention,” the hearing officer said. But Crawford was arrested anyway.

On May 16, the 1st District Court of Appeals said Crawford’s arrest was inappropriate.

“It was wrong. It was just wrong what happened to this guy,” said Circuit Judge Hugh Carithers, who leads the 4th Judicial Circuit’s family judges. “It’s embarrassing to me. It’s embarrassing to all the family judges.”

Carithers said this was a breakdown of the system, and the judges should’ve exercised more oversight. But now, he said, “I’m pretty sure we’ve righted this ship. … We had no idea this was going on.”

In the 4th Judicial Circuit, which is Duval, Clay and Nassau counties, there are 15,000 pending family cases and only seven family judges. A hearing officer is supposed to prepare a report and recommendation that goes to the judge. In Crawford’s case, the report recommended his arrest for 60 days unless he could pay $500, but no judge signed off on it before the arrest. Judge Carithers said he suspects whenever this happened in the past, the people arrested would scrounge up whatever money was necessary to get them out of jail and no one would realize they were wrongly arrested.

But Crawford’s attorney, Neil L. Weinreb, said the judges and the hearing officers should’ve known something was wrong.

HEARING OFFICER DOESN’T HEED OBJECTION

Weinreb specializes in child-support cases and he said he’s had four clients arrested even as he’s objected that the arrests were inappropriate. Three of those cases happened in the 4th Judicial Circuit. As many as 75 percent of his clients, he said, say that before they hired him, they had been arrested by hearing officers without judges signing off. Weinreb also pointed out that before the new courthouse was built, the hearings would happen at the jail, making it even easier for hearing officers to lock people up. Weinreb said he’s complained to judges and he said he even told Judge Carithers on Sept. 29. Carithers harshly disputed that Weinreb brought this to his attention. “I’m absolutely sure that didn’t happen,” he said. “I’m absolutely sure it’s not true.”

Carithers also said he thinks this wrongful incarceration was a rare occurrence and he disputed that any judges knew this had happened before. In 2014, though, News4Jax reported on a different case of Weinreb’s where someone was wrongly arrested based on a hearing officer’s order. In that case, a judge later signed the order, but not until after the person was released from jail.

In September 2014, the court found Crawford had to start paying his ex-girlfriend $511 a month in child support for their two children, as well as $3,066. His son is now 9 and his daughter is 7. Crawford told the court he wanted to pay, but he wasn’t able to afford the monthly payments. A financial affidavit he eventually filed last year said he had no more than $15 to his name. Crawford was arrested three times for failure to pay. He was in jail nine days in 2014, three days in 2015 and then six days in 2016, the time his attorney objected.

In March 2016, Hearing Officer Athiel Jones noted that Crawford still wasn’t paying. Crawford said he had tried to find work, but without transportation hadn’t had luck. When Jones ordered Crawford arrested, Weinreb tried to object, saying Crawford didn’t have the ability to pay the child support and he thought Jones was wrong to order him arrested. “You are entitled to disagree,” Jones said, according to court transcripts, “but he is going to jail today.” “Your Honor, I am also going to object to you having violated the law today. You ordered that someone be incarcerated, and may I — according to your sign — you are acting as a hearing officer today.” “I have ruled on your case,” Jones said. “I understand, but I am objecting. I am just bringing this to your attention that a hearing officer does not have the ability to incarcerate anyone. You only have the ability —” Jones interrupted, “Thank you for bringing that to my attention.” Jones didn’t return a phone call.

‘IT’S VERY, VERY DISAPPOINTING’

Carithers said he doesn’t know how many people like Crawford were wrongly arrested before getting a chance to appear before a judge. Carithers said Crawford may still have been arrested if he genuinely had the ability to pay his child support but wasn’t paying it, but he should’ve had a chance to have a judge review the case first. Carithers said the court has to look out for the caregivers, like Crawford’s ex-girlfriend, who are owed significant sums of money. “We’re not willy-nilly putting people in jail. … All we’re trying to do is collect child support for people who owe.”

Weinreb said it hurts his clients’ trust in him as an attorney. He said he tells his clients when they appear before a hearing officer they can’t be arrested because only a judge can order the arrest. He said he doesn’t dispute that there should be punishment for deadbeat parents who don’t pay child support, but the bailiffs and hearing officers should think twice before taking away someone’s rights. “My feeling is this is a technique — a strong-arm kind of technique — to enforce child support and it’s blatantly against the law; and if it’s still going on, it’s very, very disappointing.”

”Something ain’t right with the court,” Crawford said about his time in jail. “It’s hell knowing you ain’t done nothing. You’re in here with all these criminals, and it’s ugly, and you’re just sitting there and days going by. You’re in here for child support because they say you didn’t pay enough.” Crawford said he’s started doing photography gigs on the weekends and he’s hoping to build up that business. During the week, he’s trying to get construction jobs through the temp agency. But he said the child-support debt keeps stacking up. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get that right.”

– Andrew Pantazi – Florida Times Union

Neil L. Weinreb is a Family Law Attorney with McGrath Gibson.  If you have a child support issue you would like to discuss, please contact our Jacksonville Offices at (904) 358-3300 to schedule a consultation. Office, Telephone and Zoom Video conferences are available 7 days a week to fir your busy schedule.