Posted on 05/01/2008 6:17:27 AM PDT by sickoflibs
Five defendants were driving from Howard Circuit Court when deputies arrested them on charges of driving with suspended licenses because of delinquent child support payments, said the Howard’s Sheriff’s Office.
“I think they were shocked,” said Lt. Charles Gable, sheriff’s office spokesman, referring to the arrests that occurred Friday and Monday.
“We got all kinds of reactions; the first person we pulled over was like, ‘Wow.’ ”
The defendants are John Porterfield, 43, of Columbia; Denee Powell, 43, of Silver Spring; Riko Johnson, 26, of Annapolis; Craig Myers, 44, of Highland; and Renard Whitehead, 41, of Bowie.
The maximum sentence for driving with a suspended license is a $500 fine and two months in jail, Gable said.
All were released pending a June 26 Howard District Court trial.
The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration can suspend the driver’s license of any noncustodial parent who has not complied with court-ordered child support for more than 60 days, according to state law.
The Howard Sheriff’s Office received complaints from county child support officials who believed some defendants were driving themselves to and from Circuit Court for child support contempt hearings.
“I guess they never thought someone would actually check to see if they were driving,” Gable said.
The sheriff’s office cross-checked driving records with the court docket and set in motion a plan to arrest the defendants if they tried to drive themselves, Gable said.
A courtroom deputy watched the defendants leave the hearing and then described their clothing to a second deputy standing watch outside.
That deputy observed the defendants get into cars and then notified a third deputy waiting on Courthouse Drive, Gable said.
When the defendants turned onto Courthouse Drive, they were stopped and arrested on charges of driving while suspended as well as some for failing to wear seat belts, Gable said.
Moving to another state won’t help you. Wonder how many of these guys will lose their jobs because they can’t get to work? How is the state going to extort money from them then?
And if he doesn’t pay up the nanny state will ground him and take away his TV and phone privileges.
“A DL should be dependant on the ability to control a vehicle only, not any of this extraneous BS.”
I fully agree with you. I don’t want to get into the emotional and legal issues of divorce and child support but I think we should all be concerned about this trend of the state using driver licenses to force “desirable social behavior”. I don’t know if this is actually happening but I know states had discussed suspending driver licenses for kids who drop out of school, for instance.
Driving is a privilege but the necessity of driving is too dependent on “state behavior”. Perhaps in urban areas one can get along fairly well without a vehicle but try it in the rest of the country where driving is often necessary because of lack of mass transit or lack of decent jobs near affordable homes. So a state (and I am including local government entities in the catch-all “state)) can basically force driving with its zoning and mass transit policies and can force social behavior by withholding the driver license.
As you say, a driver license should be contingent solely on driver ability and history. It should be, like voting, a right which can only be withheld on factors directly related to driving ability and road safety. Anything less and we are opening ourselves up to social engineering by the state for the next “good idea”. Being from California I can easily see our loopy regulators deciding that smokers or obese people or those with too many children should lose their licenses. Far fetched? Not on the Left Coast.
(but you can’t make money to pay child support without a car to get work.)
They wasn’t paying it anyway!
No sympathies from me.
Won’t get a cent...then the state/county involved sends them to jail for non-payment of support, during which incarceration they continue to accrue unpaid support, which they still can’t pay and for which they then become eligible for more jail time...there is no intelligent design operating here.
“Maryland prides it’self for giving illegals drivers licenses so these guys only need to learn spanish to drive legally again.”
The state is knowingly giving licenses to federal criminals.
You are right on the money! Except....
Except when you say that “driving is a privilege.” That’s the state’s claim which allows it to coerce its preferred behavior under color of law. And it’s that claim which defeats every (reasonable and well-stated) argument you just made.
To grant the state the authority to package our freedoms as mere “privileges” to be doled out by magnanimous masters, to accept the state’s claim that “driving is a privilege, not a right,” is to lose the fight before it has even begun.
Idiotic. How are they supposed to get to work?
++++++++++++++++++
By supporting their kids would be a start.
The County of Los Angeles likes to try and garnish my wages every couple of years. Why? Because I happen to have the same first name and last name of some SoCal deadbeat that they can't find. This is a great system we have going here.
Full disclosure: I faithfully paid child support to my drug-addled slut ex for 12 years.
True. I wasn’t thinking clearly and I have railed against classifying driving as a privilege; however, that is apparently the ruling of the Supreme Court IIRC so until it is overturned, it is the law of the land. It ought to be a right, subject to forfeiture under very limited circumstances, like voting.
No, the real outrage is people like you who vote for idiotic politicians who make it the responsibility of the state to pay for the children of irresponsible people, or anyone else who manages to sneak across the border. If it wasn't for our socialist government, we wouldn't have an illegal emigration or welfare problem. If you want to be outraged, be outraged at yourself because you are the problem.
“His having to “worry about how to get to work” is of minimal concern when my daughter has to worry about paying her bills every month and the rest of the family is constantly having to chip in to help out ...”
Perhaps your grandchild should go live with his/her father and your daughter should pay child support to him instead? Sound reasonable?
Poor guys?
They sound like guys who make bad decisions - daily.
So you are not interested in them paying any money for child support, you just want to punish them. Good thinking sport. Bad grammar though.
“By supporting their kids would be a start.”
Impossible to support their kids if they can’t get to work. Guess you didn’t think of that huh?
(Good thinking sport.)
Thank You!
(Bad grammar though.)
Awww, have i upset the grammar Queen?
You obviously have never dealt with a dead-beat dad. If you think it would be healthy to send my granddaughters to live with an alcoholic, who drives while drinking, used to spend the money he refused to pay for their medical insurance on strippers (thereby letting the state of Maryland pay for their coverage), and pushed them off on his aunt and uncle when he did have visitation. Sound reasonable?????????
Of course, it’s ALWAYS the woman’s fault.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.