Posted on 01/23/2005 4:05:05 PM PST by EveningStar
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - State Sen. John Ford testified in a juvenile court hearing that he keeps two homes, living with two different women whose children he fathered.
Ford's testimony was part of his defense in a child support case. The Memphis Democrat heads a Senate committee that guides the state's child welfare policies, and for the past year he's tried to make use of a law he authored that keeps court-ordered support lower when a father is financially responsible for other children.
In a Juvenile Court hearing last year that is set for a follow-up hearing on Tuesday, Ford said he lives some days with ex-wife Tamara Mitchell-Ford and the three children they had together. On others, he stays with his longtime girlfriend, Connie Mathews, and their two children.
Ford and Mitchell-Ford went through a bitter divorce in 2002 that led to Mitchell-Ford's jailing after she plowed her car through Mathews' Collierville home.
Ford said he pays nearly all bills for both families. They stay in houses he owns and where he also lives, though neither home is in his South Memphis Senate district.
"You have two homes?" Referee Felicia Hogan asks during the tape recorded hearing from November. "Well, that's unusual."
"Not necessarily," Ford shot back. "I know people who got five."
Hogan responded: "For child support purposes that's unusual, let me put it that way then."
Ford is battling a suit by a third woman, Dana Smith, who is trying to increase his court-ordered support of a 10-year-old girl he fathered. Smith, a former employee under Ford when he was General Sessions Clerk, won a 1996 sexual harassment verdict against him.
Ford contends that any increase for Smith should be tempered by his financial obligations to his other five minor children. None of those children is subject to child support orders.
In the hearing, Ford argued all five children live in his household — a household that encompasses two homes — and because of that he is exempt from rules requiring strict proof of his financial support of them.
Hogan rejected Ford's request, saying he must produce evidence of bills paid if he wants credit to lessen any modification of Smith's child support.
Mitchell-Ford told The Commercial Appeal newspaper last week said she can verify at least some of Ford's contentions. She said she is six months pregnant, and the father, she said, is John Ford, now 62.
"John is over here every single day, if not staying here," she said.
Ford did not respond to messages left at his Nashville and Memphis offices. Mathews could not be reached.
Ford's comments were part of a hearing more than two years after Smith first petitioned Juvenile Court to increase the senator's $500-a-month support.
Ford's income has risen dramatically in recent years. Evidence presented in the hearing showed Ford's gross income reached $356,899 in 2003 and $255,752 in 2002.
Ford said most of that comes from his private insurance and real estate consulting business, though specific sources remain a secret. At Ford's request, Hogan ordered state's attorney Joseph Little to keep confidential receipts and documented expenses Ford was ordered to hand over.
Disclosure "would expose all of my business interests and everything. It would put me in imminent danger of a lot of different things I don't want to explain in here," Ford told the court.
What is the difference?
Groucho: "Well whadaya say girls? Are we all gonna get married?"
Woman: "All of us? But that's bigamy!"
Groucho: "Yes, and it's big-a-me too."
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Theres no John Ford
Sounds like another Kweise Mfume
I live in Tennessee and don't make anywhere near the kind of money Ford does. That being said, in determining child support for my daughter, the only thing the judge took into account was the amount of COURT-ORDERED child support I was already paying for my son (different mother). The judge would not consider any (considerable) additional money I was providing beyond that amount. I pay about $500 per month/perchild and Ford, with his $250,000+ income is paying the same amount? What's wrong with this picture? Let me also say that I gladly support my children even beyond the extent of the court order. I only wish I had more to give them.
He's not a national Senator, I guess he's like an assemblyman.
http://tinyurl.com/6qrhd
He's a state senator.
Um, Clinton did have a live-in boyfriend when he was Prez... Hillary.
lol
"The Memphis Democrat heads a Senate committee that guides the state's child welfare policies, and for the past year he's tried to make use of a law he authored that keeps court-ordered support lower when a father is financially responsible for other children."
It's so nice to be able to write the laws in your favor...sarcasm.
That is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. And people elect this guy back to office? Or is he not a senator...or...yikes, I'm so confused!
sundero
I think you need to take some Civics lessons---
All--what if one of Bush's "kin" had this history, it would be front page news, dontcha know!!!
I really looked twice to see if Scrappleface was the author of this story---
The man should be put in a room shackeled to the floor and then put ALL of the wimmen in his life in there for about 5 hours---
"Not necessarily," Ford shot back. "I know people who got five."
And Crazy Mfume's got 7 or 8.
There is no senator named John Ford. http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Just look
State Senator John Ford (D.-Memphis)
Senate District 29
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