BRONX---An Indiana man has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison following his conviction after trial for failure to pay child support for twin girls born in the Bronx in 1989.

Clifford Kerley, 46, now of Westfield, Ind., was prosecuted under the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act. It is a federal crime to willfully fail to pay court-ordered child support for children living in another state in an amount that is greater than $10,000 or more than two years past due.

Court records indicate when Kerley's support obligations were first being determined in 1990 by the New York State Family Court, Kerley, who was married to another woman, denied paternity and requested blood tests. However, Kerley failed to appear for the blood tests or to return to Family Court, and thereafter moved with his family to Indiana, where he worked as a hematologist and dialysis technician.

He was ultimately arrested on Deadbeat Parent charges in July 2002, as of that time having never made a voluntary payment of child support for the girls, and owing their mother over $100,000.

After his arrest, Kerley challenged the validity of the underlying 1990 support order of the New York State Family Court. In 2004, U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones dismissed the Deadbeat Parent charges in an opinion that called into question longstanding practices of the New York State Family Court in issuing child support orders, potentially invalidating thousands of other support orders. The Government appealed, with amicus curiae support from the State of New York and the City of New York, and on July 28, 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the lower court's decision and reinstated the criminal charges. 4-21-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette