Round and Round

My ex-husband failed to show up for a court date. The judge found him in contempt and ordered 30 days in jail or he could purge himself by paying $1500 toward his back child support. This was almost 3 months ago and he remains free as a bird with all his money still in his pocket.

According to DHHS Child Support Enforcement and Recovery (DHHS from her on out), the Dixfield Police Department was suppose to serve the warrant. I called the Dixfield PD and talked to the chief who was very nice and promised to look into it. Nothing happened. I called the PD again and talked to an officer who was less helpful, but promised to look into it. Still nothing. I wrote a letter directly to the police chief. After about a week, he called to let me know Dixfield PD would not be handling the arrest warrant because it was a civil case. I was advised to call the Rumford District Court.

The woman on the other end of the phone was one of the kindest people I've talked to while dealing with child support issues. Unfortunately, she had bad news. According to this lovely and very helpful woman, civil arrest warrants are very difficult to serve and there is no way to enforce the jail time since it is a civil warrant not a criminal warrant. She said it was a common problem. It is suppose to be the Oxford Sheriff's department civil service department who will serve the warrant, but the Dixfield PD and the Oxford Sheriff's department can not decide how the warrant will be served. They, meaning everyone involved, even know where he is, but he has not been served. She suggested I call the Oxford Sheriff's department.

I called the Sheriff's department, twice. No one has returned my call. In the meantime, I called DHHS to update them and ask a few questions. No one at DHHS was will to talk about the downfalls of civil warrants. They assured me the warrant was active and someone would pick him up despite the fact Rumford District Court basically said it wasn't going to happen. No one seemed willing to make the phone call themselves to check on the situation.

By now, you must be thinking that there is a piece of the puzzle missing. I can assure you that this puzzle has many lost piece, but the biggest known issue is this: My ex-husband is a call firefighter for the town of Dixfield. Professional courtesy, sticking together, protecting their own, its all there. No one seems to care that J has earned this jail sentence by continually failing to support his son. No one seems to mind that a deadbeat dad is walking in and out of their station every day. Despite this fact, J is a respected member of the fire department, and is therefore, apparently, above such things as having his child support obligations enforced.