DATE: Saturday, April 5, 1997               TAG: 9704050218

SECTION: FINAL                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  143 lines

TECHNICALITY FREES DEADBEAT DAD HE OWES HIS FAMILY $300,00, EX-WIFE SAYS

Saamo S. Saar was arrested recently in Florida, some six years after he was listed among Virginia's most notorious deadbeat dads with a child-support bill of $74,643.

He was extradited to Norfolk, where his ex-wife, Judy Carter, finally got her day in court. But the outcome was not a happy one for Carter: Saar walked out of court last month on a technicality, leaving Carter shocked and angry. Stunned state child-support enforcement officials could not move quickly enough to have Saar detained on state charges.

Saar, 59, was last seen riding away from the courthouse in a car with Florida tags, his child and spousal support bill at nearly $300,000, Carter said, and growing at the rate of $1,800 a month.

``I don't understand how a man can just be let go like that,'' Carter said in an interview this week. ``How can one man get away with it and the other fathers are being brought to justice?''

Until authorities can relocate Saar, there apparently is nothing anyone can do.

Carter, 36, said she felt confident going into the courtroom on March 18. ``I really thought we had him,'' she said.

But Magistrate Judge Tommy E. Miller dismissed the case, saying there was insufficient evidence that Saar had lived outside the state where his child, now 12, lived - one of three requirements under the law.

The judge said he had no choice but to dismiss the charge, but made his unhappiness clear, severely lecturing Saar about his failure to support his family, according to witnesses in the courtroom.

``I wish it could have turned out differently,'' said Dee Sterling, the special assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case. ``I put on all the evidence I had.''

The federal charge against Saar, a merchant seaman, carried a maximum penalty of six months in jail.

``He could be prosecuted again in the future because he still owes that money,'' Sterling said. ``It's a continuing obligation.''

Such cases are difficult to prosecute, she said. The people involved are practiced at avoiding the law.

``He's been avoiding child support for a long time,'' Sterling said.

State officials are now left to pick over the pieces of the case against Saar.

An employee with the state child-support office, who was in court when Saar was released, called her boss in Virginia Beach, Ron Harris, just after the case was dismissed.

``I was in shock,'' said Harris, district manager for the state Department of Child Support Enforcement. ``We just weren't prepared for this outcome. All we know is that he got into a car with Florida tags, and then he was off into the sunset.''

Officials in his office scrambled to locate a court order to temporarily hold Saar, but were unable to do so until the next day.

``The next step is for us to pinpoint him,'' Harris said. ``There's certainly still an option of bringing it back in federal court.''

The reason state officials turned to federal authorities in the first place was because all avenues open to the state had been exhausted, Harris said. They took advantage of a 1992 federal statute aimed at keeping people from moving from state to state and job to job to avoid support responsibilities.

``This guy had been on the run for many years, and it really was a stroke of luck that they were able to find him,'' Harris said. ``Matter of fact, we thought he was out of the country or dead at one point.''

Even F. Sullivan Callahan, the Norfolk lawyer Saar retained to represent him, said he was surprised that his client was not stopped by state authorities after the case was dismissed.

``I really expected he was going to be arrested when he walked out of the courtroom,'' Callahan said. ``I anticipated that the state would get involved before the end of the litigation.''

Callahan said the government was required to prove three elements: that a valid support order existed, that more than $5,000 was owed and that the accused person lived in another state from the child. It was the third element that the judge ruled was not sufficiently documented.

``He just lucked out,'' Callahan said. ``Sometimes they just can't prove a point. He got off on a technicality.''

But Callahan understands what it must be like for Saar's ex-wife.

``He's gone to parts unknown,'' Callahan said. ``I'm sure she's upset about that. I'm sure there will come a time when he's going to have to answer for this.''

Assistant Attorney General George B. Pearson, who represents the state's division of child support enforcement, said: ``It's a tragedy, because of the amount of arrears and the time and energy spent trying to find him, that he can just walk out of this court, and this mother and child still do not have the money that is due them. . . . The bottom line is that we just want justice to be served.''

Carter said she jotted down the license number of the car she thinks Saar left the courthouse in and gave it to authorities. The car is owned by a Virginia Beach resident, but there have been no leads as to Saar's whereabouts, she said.

Carter was introduced to Saar by a friend. On their first date, Saar took her to Williamsburg, where he had arranged for a banquet table of fancy hors d'oeuvres and a selection of about 15 bottles of imported wines and champagnes, Carter said.

Five days later, he bought her a white 1977 TR-7 sports car because he didn't like the aging Plymouth Fury she was driving, she said.

He seemed to be a high roller with plenty of cash. They dated for about seven months, then married in August 1983. Their son, Justin, was born Sept. 7, 1984.

Saar had left home by February 1989. Carter hadn't seen him since January 1990.

``I thought he'd dropped off the face of the earth,'' said Carter, who is hiding out in the Richmond area with two of her three children because she fears for their safety. ``I didn't think anyone would find him.''

Saar has been unemployed since 1992, according to papers filed in federal court. He had been living in the Tampa area, and he ``just sat in his motel room for about three years,'' the papers said. He reported that he had some money to pay his motel bill. ``He states he came out of his room about every three to four days to get some food and then returned to his room.''

He said he ran out of money and began to live on the street, according to the court papers.

``He states that he instituted his own arrest by opening a can of beer on the street in front of a police officer in St. Petersburg, Fla. Following the arrest, the open container offense was dismissed, however he was held for the outstanding federal warrant for the offense which is before this court,'' according to the court papers.

In December, Saar appeared before the U.S. District Court in Tampa. Papers filed there reported: ``Mr. Saar is a homeless transient individual who has no economic resources whatsoever.''

Carter said that Saar's failure to pay child and spousal support has meant their son has attended six or seven different schools. She lost the townhouse they owned in Newport News and had to declare bankruptcy in February or March 1989. The 1987 Chrysler New Yorker they owned was repossessed. The mother and her children stayed with friends and relatives and even lived out of a car.

``The hardest thing is to keep my kids in a home,'' Carter said.

She is convinced that her ex-husband has money. He recently contacted her daughter and gave the 18-year-old a medical insurance card to use and told her he was setting up $5,000 trust funds for her and her brother, Carter said. He also gave them $180, but told them not to tell Carter, she said.

``I know he's working some place,'' she said. ``He hides out in the middle of the ocean. . . . No, I'm not going to give up. I'm going to find out more about what I can do to bring him to justice. I don't see why if they found him once they can't find him again.''

When you ask Saar's lawyer where his client is now, his first response is:

``Who the hell knows? I don't know where this guy is.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by IAN MARTIN photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Judy Carter lives in hiding in Richmond with her children, Richard,

5, and Justin, 12, but came to Norfolk to see justice from her

ex-husband, Saamo S. Saar - seen in a 1980s photo and a likeness on

a wanted poster. KEYWORDS: CHILD SUPPORT DEADBEAT DAD

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