Kyra_Eleison
Junior Member
This is happening in Idaho.
I'm asking this question for a friend with no internet access. I'm sure that's what everyone says, but in this case it's true
)
My friend has two teenage daughters by her former husband. While he is supposed to pay child support, she says he has not made a payment since 2003. What he will occasionally do is purchase expensive gifts for the girls (she says in a bid to "buy their affection"). She is in fairly dire straits financially right now, due to the fact that her current husband was out of work for quite some time (victim of the economy). He is employed again now, but they've gotten far behind on virtually every bill. She also recently lost her job. I'm sure their financial situation has also suffered due to her deadbeat ex's failure to ever pay child support.
Recently, she was faced with an imminent shut-off of the electricity, so she took her ex's latest gift to the daughters - a pair of laptop computers - to the pawn shop in order to get money to keep electricity on in the house. She says she asked the girls' permission and they were fine with it (IMO they're minors, she's the adult and shouldn't even have to ask permission! But that's neither here nor there.)
Anyway, the ex has had his girlfriend claim that she purchased the computers for the girls and I really don't know how all this works, but I guess the girlfriend has formally accused my friend of theft, and my friend says the DA is going ahead with pursuing charges! The whole thing seems beyond ludicrous and sickeningly unfair to me; I mean, if the loser ex had been paying child support like he's supposed to, she wouldn't have been in a position of having her electricity shut off in the first place!! I mean, can they make this stick?? The girls are minors; do they even legally have "possessions"? Shouldn't anything that "belongs" to them in fact belong to my friend as the custodial parent? Also, the girlfriend has claimed that she has proof of purchase, but has not yet produced anything. I mean, how can this possibly go forward?
What are my friend's options? Obviously, if she can't even keep her lights and internet on, she certainly can't afford good legal representation. What should she do?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
I'm asking this question for a friend with no internet access. I'm sure that's what everyone says, but in this case it's true
)My friend has two teenage daughters by her former husband. While he is supposed to pay child support, she says he has not made a payment since 2003. What he will occasionally do is purchase expensive gifts for the girls (she says in a bid to "buy their affection"). She is in fairly dire straits financially right now, due to the fact that her current husband was out of work for quite some time (victim of the economy). He is employed again now, but they've gotten far behind on virtually every bill. She also recently lost her job. I'm sure their financial situation has also suffered due to her deadbeat ex's failure to ever pay child support.
Recently, she was faced with an imminent shut-off of the electricity, so she took her ex's latest gift to the daughters - a pair of laptop computers - to the pawn shop in order to get money to keep electricity on in the house. She says she asked the girls' permission and they were fine with it (IMO they're minors, she's the adult and shouldn't even have to ask permission! But that's neither here nor there.)
Anyway, the ex has had his girlfriend claim that she purchased the computers for the girls and I really don't know how all this works, but I guess the girlfriend has formally accused my friend of theft, and my friend says the DA is going ahead with pursuing charges! The whole thing seems beyond ludicrous and sickeningly unfair to me; I mean, if the loser ex had been paying child support like he's supposed to, she wouldn't have been in a position of having her electricity shut off in the first place!! I mean, can they make this stick?? The girls are minors; do they even legally have "possessions"? Shouldn't anything that "belongs" to them in fact belong to my friend as the custodial parent? Also, the girlfriend has claimed that she has proof of purchase, but has not yet produced anything. I mean, how can this possibly go forward?
What are my friend's options? Obviously, if she can't even keep her lights and internet on, she certainly can't afford good legal representation. What should she do?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?