ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
A federal magistrate has sentenced a Florida man to two months in jail for failing to pay $25 a week in child support, one of the stiffest sentences handed down under a federal deadbeat-parent law.
Judge W. Curtis Sewell rejected Gary N. Johnson's argument Tuesday that the federal law was unconstitutional.
Johnson, 35, of Port Charlotte, Fla., was required to pay support to help care for his 7-year-old daughter, Marisa. Instead, Johnson spent his money buying a classic Corvette and three boats, according to court records.
``I'm just ecstatic,'' said Mary Rauss of Manassas, Johnson's ex-wife. ``When I found him a year ago, nobody wanted to do anything, but I feel like I got satisfaction in the long run.''
Johnson was prosecuted under a 1993 federal law intended to prevent parents from eluding child-support payments ordered in one state simply by moving to another.
``This is one of the longest sentences in the country,'' U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey said. ``It will send a message that people who intentionally refuse to pay child support will be investigated and prosecuted, and may go to jail.''
In 70 cases tried nationally under the new law, only three people have received longer sentences. Defendants in South Carolina, Texas and Massachusetts received the full six months allowed for a first offense.
Johnson and Rauss, 33, were married in 1985. She said she moved to Manassas in 1988 and expected her husband to join her after he finished studies in Binghamton, N.Y.
Instead, Johnson stayed behind, and the couple divorced in 1989, when their daughter was a year old. Rauss said Johnson saw their daughter only three times and never sought to maintain contact.
Johnson was ordered to pay the weekly child support for his daughter on May 22, 1989. Just four days later, he was ruled in contempt for ``willfully failing to obey the prior court order.''
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB