KUNA -- A Kuna mother says her ex-husband is behind on child support by more than $100,000. He's not the only one who owes that much, and now the federal government wants the public's help in catching deadbeat parents.
In the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General says deadbeat parents collectively owe more than $100 billion.
To get the public involved in tracking down deadbeat parents, the office launched a new program called "Project Save Our Children". The project involves a most wanted list of parents who are refusing to pay.
'It was hard to accept'
Stephanie Wierschem's ex-husband, Rusty Haile, owes nearly $120,000 in child support. They had been married for 19 years, and they divorced in 2000.
"Deep down in my heart, after being married to him that long and having four kids with him, I truly didn't want to believe it. It was hard to accept," Wierschem said.
Wierschem took extra jobs, emptied her 401K and had to cut corners on spending. For a long time, she says she held out hope that Haile would pay, but she rarely got money.
"Sometimes he would say, it's not here yet, but I'm sending it. Sometimes he would say it's in the mail, and it would not arrive," Wierschem said. "Once the years started to pass by and I realized, okay, it didn't come last year. It didn't come last month. It didn't come five years ago. It's never going to come."
Ex-husband moved to Bermuda, quit job to avoid paying
Haile moved all over the country; he even lived in Bermuda for a time, according to court documents. At least once, he quit a job to avoid having his wages garnished.
"It was tough. There was times you thought you couldn't endure another day of stress, going how am I going to get milk or food? Or just meet their basic needs?" Wierschem said. "There was times even with both of our incomes that we couldn't go do the normal things that a lot of families did. We couldn't go to McDonald's. We couldn't go out to eat. I couldn't take them to the show."
Haile's state-hopping and owing thousands of dollars caught the attention of the federal government.
"The majority of child support cases fall within the realm of state jurisdiction. But any time a deadbeat parent is in arrears of $5,000 for over a year and has fled a state and is actively avoiding their payments, they have indeed committed a felony," Gerald Roy, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said.
Most Wanted Deadbeat Parents
Haile's crime also qualified him for the just-launched Health and Human Services website that includes a list of Most Wanted Deadbeat Parents. The idea is to get the public involved in tracking down parents who willfully are not paying.
"The overwhelming majority of parents in this country take care of their children. They provide the basics. And when they see that a parent has decided to flee their obligations and live a life where they are engaged in having a roof over their heads or having consistent meals, that is appalling to the majority of Americans," Roy said.
The list targets parents who are able to pay, but are choosing not to pay for a long period of time. Roy says examples of parents who will qualify owe more than $100,000 or have abandoned children with medical needs or in a situation of homelessness.
"An individual that has the means to pay their child support enforcement and actively evades law enforcement or their obligations, that in my opinion is a very selfish individual," Roy said.
Haile will be sentenced to pay
In November 2011, Haile pleaded guilty for willfully failing to pay child support. With his arrest and plea, he's now one fugitive who's listed as captured on the new website.
As part of Haile's plea agreement, he is to pay $30,000 in child support before or on his sentencing date. So far, Wierschem says she hasn't received that money. Haile will be sentenced in February, and his punishment will include paying all the child support he owes.
Wierschem is glad the federal government invested time in tracking down and arresting Haile because she says she couldn't afford to do that. Even though her kids are older and she's missed opportunities to provide for them as young children, she wants Haile to be held accountable and give her kids money for college and other needs.
"It's not an obligation to send money to send money to me, it's an obligation to send money for the kids," Wierschem said.
