DAY 3

GREG DERR/The Patriot Ledger

Frustrated by the state’s lack of action, Virginia Daniels of Halifax worked with a private attorney to find her ex-husband and take him to court for child support owed to their five sons.

Fed up with the state:

Halifax mom tracks down her ex, makes him pay

By DINA GERDEMAN
The Patriot Ledger

Virginia Daniels of Halifax spent more than 12 years leaving it up to the state Department of Revenue to find her ex-husband and squeeze him for the $40,000 he owed to support the five young boys he left behind.

But the state was unable to get more than a handful of child support payments for Daniels. It was only after a private attorney took on her battle for money that she got some action: Her ex-husband, Timothy Daniels, was arrested at his mother’s funeral in Quincy, was sent to jail for five months and was ordered by the court to hand over a portion of his mother’s estate to chip away at his child support debt.

“Five boys have been neglected not only by a father but also by a system that allows this to happen,” said Daniels, who spent years on welfare. “(The state) kept telling me that they can’t get blood from a stone, that there’s too many of them. They want you to shut up and go away.”

But that is exactly what custodial parents fighting for their children’s money should not do, experts say.

Virginia Daniels finally gave up on the state after more than 12 years of frustration and few payments.

“They would say, ‘You’re getting welfare. What’s your problem?’’’ she said. “I’d get off the phone shaking.”

It was Daniels’ own investigative work that put her ex-husband in jail. After an attorney at the law office where she works as a paralegal took on her case for free, they got a civil arrest warrant against her ex-husband. But it was unenforceable because her ex-husband was living in Maine.

Then Daniels saw from an obituary that her ex-husband’s mother had died, so she knew he would return to Massachusetts for the funeral - and she knew it was her chance to grab him. Which Constable Jerry Loomis did moments after Timothy Daniels left his mother’s funeral Mass in Quincy last October. That arrest led a judge to order him to pay $10,000 in back child support or serve six months in jail. After serving five months, he and his family agreed to give his portion of his mother’s estate to his ex-wife.

Although Daniels is off welfare, she is still struggling. She works two jobs, but her children still have no health insurance because she can’t afford the premiums - and one of her sons has severe asthma. She has had to lean on her parents and siblings to put food in her refrigerator and avoid foreclosure on her home. And her lights and heat have been turned off more times than she can count. She is hoping to receive enough money from her mother-in-law’s estate to pay off the $8,000 she owes to the electric company and the $3,000 she owes in medical bills.

“There are five children who really need the money,” said Daniels, whose sons range from 23 to 16.

Daniels believes she would never have gotten money from her ex-husband - and he never would have been punished with a jail sentence - if she had relied only on the state.

“They would never put him in jail, so I put him in jail,” she said. “I felt that I was finally able to do something. I was not going to let him just walk away.”

Dina Gerdeman may be reached by clicking here.

PREVIOUS | NEXT