A federal grand jury has returned indictments over the past six weeks against a pair of alleged deadbeat dads who owe more than $700,000 in child support between them.
One indictment charges Edward R. Stone with willfully failing to pay $334,137. The other charges Sami Tamman with willfully failing to pay $441,834.
Stone is scheduled to stand trial later this month. If he is found guilty, he faces a fine and up to two years in prison.
At sentencing he could also be ordered to pay the back child support, but in any case that order remains in effect at the state Family Court level.
According to the indictment against Stone, he owes the money in Washington state, where his children live. The case was brought before a grand jury in Hawaii because he lives here.
Adolfo Capestany, a spokesman for Washington’s Division of Child Support, said the agency took Stone’s case to the federal government under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Project Save Our Children. He said the agency refers cases to the program when it has exhausted all other means to get a noncustodial parent to pay up.
The project then refers the case for prosecution by the U.S. attorney in the jurisdiction where the alleged deadbeat resides.
Garry Kemp, administrator of Hawaii’s Child Support Enforcement Agency, said that when a noncustodial parent who lives in another state owes money in Hawaii, his agency first tries to have the other state adopt and enforce the Hawaii Family Court order for child support.
If that doesn’t work, it’s necessary to go to the feds.
Kemp said his agency has better success at collecting current support payments than it does collecting payments that are past due. According to statistics for the last fiscal year, CSEA successfully collected approximately 63 percent of current support payments due and 45 percent of payments past due.
The federal public defender’s office is representing Stone for free based on a financial statement he provided the court.
Tamman might never face the charge against him.
Tamman’s children live with their mother in Hawaii, but he lives in and is a citizen of Switzerland.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Osborne Jr. said it was the mother, the custodial parent, who brought the case forward for prosecution. But Osborne said Tamman can be prosecuted only if he voluntarily enters the United States.
"The Swiss government does not extradite its own citizens for this type of crime," Osborne said.
