The news about Massachusetts top ten dead-beat dads is spreading across the state. As part of the state's poster campaign, Northampton resident Mary Likins delivered her personal testimonial yesterday in Boston, a testimony which is a sad but inspiring story of a single mother raising a child without the financial support of the child's father, Gilbert Allen Smith. Mary has provided her remarks below the video clip. Information from the Department of Revenue website below.
hello, ladies and gentlemen. i am so very excited to be here today; to have been asked to speak, and to finally have social justice! the collection of child support is not about me having extra money with which to buy a new couch or what-have-you, it is about the child not having an enhanced and enriched life. it is about the absent parent being in debt to the child. it is about the child. child support is designed to meet the minimal basic needs of the child and relieve the state of the burden: "the child support enforcement's mission is to make a difference in the lives of children by enforcing the financial responsibilities of parenthood."
my name is mary likins. i live in northampton, mass. i am single-parent of two boys: 1 adult son, j-d, and 1 teenager, dominik. i am here for both, but genetically for one: dominik allen likins. this is dominik – [show picture.]
because dominik's dad, gilbert, has been almost absent from his entire life, dominik has been absent of financial support, a father's presence, and all aspects of insurance. these are the court ordered obligations which gil has been negligent of nearly all of dominik's life. i met gil when j-d was 6 years old. a child at 6 is impressionable, and the scar gil left on j-d through his abandonment of his family has been deep and long. subsequently, the amount owed pales in comparison to what has been missing.
dominik is nearly 16, and has seen his father three times. gil has managed to remain hidden and underground for most of his parental life, either by being housed and hidden by his parents, by living with roommates or wives, or by possibly hiding out in religious compounds to which his family belongs and ministers for.
therefore, on this 15th annual unveiling of the department of revenue's 10 most wanted negligent & irresponsible parental listing, it is my pleasure, believe me, to be here to speak to you on my son's behalf of what going without has meant, and how it has affected us…
first of all, i want to publicly thank kim greenly in the springfield office, my child support enforcement officer of the past 4+ years, for her work and dedication to not just "doing my job" as she said to me when i asked for her permission to acknowledge her here today, but also for supporting me in my quest to have dominik's dad brought forward by being recommended for placement on the poster. as of january 31st, child support collections from out-of-state are up 6% since 2008. i hope this poster will raise the percentage even higher. gil currently owes more than $25,000.00 without interest and penalties.
the photo of gil was taken in 1991 in virginia while he and i were both in the uscg. he has not physically changed much since. he was forced to vacate our home on cape cod by way of a 209a – a domestic violence restraining order – in april, 1994. shortly afterward, he was ordered by his commanding officer to support his family, which meant paying rent, child support, & obtaining health and life insurance. to this day, gil has not paid any life insurance, and in march of 1995, he was discharged from the uscg at his request so that he would not have to pay child support. in january of 1995, he obtained medical insurance for dominik, only to have it become worthless within two months upon discharge. since then, gil has not paid child support on a regular basis. this has made existing much less living more than difficult, it has felt hopeless, at times. now, with our economy in a downturn, my own employment will meet its demise on june 30th.
hope is the belief that good things will happen. my hope today is that gil will be found, that we can be paid our child support arrearage and that the state can be paid back.
since gil left our home, we have been reeling from homelessness, insolvency, betrayal, disconnection from family, shame and disappointment. gil parent's have housed him, given him money, a car, and visited him all the while telling us that they knew not where he was. we have relied on section 8, welfare, masshealth, food stamps, fuel assistance, the salvation army, church discretionary funds, strangers, friends, and most importantly, my church family.
therefore, i want to publicly express my deep gratitude and affection for that church family: the members of jwumc under the pastoral care of mark goad, imparticularly mary fraunfelter, betty nicholson, mable fofonoff, becca mackey, iver and rae johnson, mary and roy cooke, and rev frank kooker. i also want to thank my current church family: the members of cumc under the pastoral care of peter hey and mike stotts. yet, nothing can replace a Father, a Dad, a Daddy.
my church family supported us with emotional help, advise, money, furniture, housing, cars, gifts in kind, and spiritual guidance. this day has been long in coming, and i am so grateful today to have this opportunity to finally have a voice. this is about the child, the children, and me. i often wonder what our life would have been like if we had family support, if we had received child support, if we had not been deceived.
thank you.
2/25/09 – DOR Presents New Poster of Ten Most Wanted for Failure to Pay Child Support
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Robert R. Bliss
blissr@dor.state.ma.us
617-626-2369
10 non-custodial parents, whereabouts unknown, owe $733,481 in child support
Department of Revenue Commissioner Navjeet K. Bal today unveiled the 15th edition of the Department of Revenue’s Ten Most Wanted poster for failure to pay child support.
“The message in this poster is simple and direct: There is no responsibility greater than providing support for your children,” she said. “We want every child in the Commonwealth to succeed, and there is nothing more fundamental to that success than for a child to have the support of both parents.”
“The 10 individuals on this new poster, who together owe $733,481 in unpaid child support for 19 children, have willfully evaded their basic parental responsibility, in terms of both financial and emotional support,” she said. “They have left an incredible burden for custodial parents to bear, and they have left holes in the hearts of their children.”
Each parent on the Ten Most Wanted list has left the Commonwealth and now faces criminal charges carrying sentences of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Arrest warrants have been issued and the names of each entered in the National Criminal Information Center database.
Those who have information on the whereabouts of these 10 individuals should call the Ten Most Wanted Tip-line at 1-888-WANTEDS.
Over the past 17 years, DOR’s Child Support Enforcement unit on 14 previous posters has displayed the faces of 122 non-custodial parents whose whereabouts were unknown and who were far behind on their support payments. Of those 122 parents, 104 have been located and about $4.5 million collected in back child support.
The previous poster, issued in September 2007, resulted in the location of seven delinquent parents and the collection of $123,000. Two others on the poster are overseas but outside the jurisdiction of child support authorities.
