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Daily Hampshire
Gazette,
Vol. 211, Number 301, Tuesday, August
28, 1997
'DEADBEAT' DAD SWEEP
NETS NINE
By Stephen C. Hill
Staff Writer
Knocking on doors and searching closets, officials worked into the
early morning hours today in a roundup of men who had failed to make court-ordered
child-support payments. They made nine arrests in Hampden County but could not find two
"deadbeat dads" believed to be in Hampshire County - one in Belchertown and
Northampton.
The sweep was part of a crackdown by the state Department of
Revenue, the agency charged with collecting child-support payments in the state.
"This is also a message to others out there who aren't paying
their child support. "Parents should live up to their obligations and pay their child
support..." spokeswoman Diana Obbard said.
In the sweep last night and early today, three men were arrested in
Ludlow, three in Springfield, two in Holyoke and another in Chicopee. They owed a combined
total of $83,000 in back child-support payments, according to Obbard. Those arrested were
among 20 men sought on warrants issued by the Hampden County Probate Court. They were to
be arraigned there this morning.
"They may be seeing some jail time if they don't come up with
some money," Obbard said.
An appointed Constable, Scott Goodkowsky, and two assistants
began their rounds in a mini-van about 6 p.m. Monday and concluded about 2 a.m. today.
He runs the Constables' Office, a private firm in Chicopee that was hired by the
Department of Revenue to seek out nine deadbeat dads.
Goodkowsky and his men caught one man hiding in a closet and another
behind a water heater in a utility closet. In Belchertown, their success was limited. The
knock came shortly before midnight and startled a woman who came to the back door of a
yellow Jensen Street bungalow. Goodkowsky, a large, crew-cut 37-year-old wearing a
bulletproof vest, identified himself and tried to calm the woman as he asked if the wanted
man were home.
"I don't have any idea where he is right now ... last I heard
he was in Florida," said the woman, who said she is the man's mother.
Goodkowsky was not surprised. His latest information, two months
old, listed a Texas address for the man, he said, but he had to check. Goodkowsky gave her
the Texas address and urged her to tell her son to contact him.
"It's not real bad; it's not a criminal matter, so don't lose
sleep over it," Goodkowsky said, but added that "it's not going to go
away."
It was then on to Northampton, to the Grove Street Shelter, one of
the two possible city addresses of another deadbeat dad. The man moved out in late July,
possibly to Chicopee, the staff person on duty told Goodkowsky. On to Straw Avenue, where
Goodkowsky had information that the wanted man might be living, but he could not be
located there either.
Goodkowsky will be paid $125 for each arrest by Hampden County, but
the probate court judge can order the person arrested to also pay Goodkowsky another $300
to $400.
Obbard noted that the DOR, with access to the payroll, tax and
banking records, has the power and ability to track down delinquent parents and garnish
their wages or intercept a tax return. The DOR collected $270 million in child support
payments for custodial parents last year, Obbard said, adding that the agency will assist
any parent in collecting child support and can act as an intermediary between parents.
"Very often parents want to deal with us because they don't
want to deal with each other," said Obbard.
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ALL ABOUT HOLYOKE
HOLYOKE SUN
AUGUST 27-SEPTEMBER 2, 1997
JAIL
POLITICS IRKS CONSTABLE
By Ryan Whirty
SHERIFF
DENIES JAIL
REFUSES PRISONERS |
 |
"We
would never do that.
No ifs, ands or buts about it."
Michael J. Ashe
Hampden County Sheriff
and Jail Administrator |
Scott Goodkowsky leaned back in his chair Monday as
the person on the other end picked up the phone. Goodkowsky, a Hampden County Constable
based in Chicopee, put his hands to his mouth as John Kenney, the Deputy Superintendent of
the Hampden County Jail, talked to him over speaker phone.
While Goodkowsky's dog, Sam, growled and
toyed with a bright yellow tennis ball, Kenney told the Constable that the jail would, as
a "one-time courtesy", take the prisoners Goodkowsky would arrest that night in
a sweep of local deadbeat dads.
The news, in Goodkowsky's words, "took a load off my
shoulders". At first, he says, Kenney told him the jail would not accept anyone
arrested by the Constable in the sweep. As a result, with precious hours to go before he
was scheduled to venture out on the sting, Goodkowsky, a Holyoke native, had nowhere to
drop off his potential arrestees. "I'm kind of hurting for a place to put these
people", he said at the time.
But after getting word that Rich McCarthy, the jail's public
information officer, had told a neutral party Monday morning that the jail had room for
Goodkowsky's prisoners, the Constable called McCarthy and asked exactly what the deal was.
A few minutes later Goodkowsky received the call from Kenney, who then broke the good news
to the Constable. Kenney's decision received such a positive response in Goodkowsky's
office because rounding up deadbeat dads is a large part of Goodkowsky's business.
Monday's sweep was ordered by the State Department of Revenue,
representatives from which contacted both the Hampden County Sheriffs and Goodkowsky's
office in an effort to net the fathers who have fallen far behind in their child support.
But, Goodkowsky said his office fights with the sheriff's office for state business when
it comes to arresting the deadbeat fathers. "It's very cutthroat and
competitive," he said.
According to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's Office, Hampden
County Sheriffs, Inc., is a for-profit organization. The president and treasurer of the
corporation, Michael J. Ashe, is also in charge of the operation of the jail. Goodkowsky
charges that the Sheriff's Department has frequently turned his arrestees away at the jail
for profit-minded reasons. The Constable pointed to Kenney's original position that
Goodkowsky could not drop off his deadbeat dads Monday night as evidence. "That seems
kind of corrupt, if you ask me," he said. But Ashe, responding to Goodkowsky's
allegations, vehemently denied that his department turns away prisoners caught by other
agencies.
"We would never do that," he said. "No ifs, ands or
buts about it".
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