Macomb County goes after unpaid child support with help from state grant

Macomb County gets state grant for paternity rights and enforcing child support

Prosecutor Pete Lucido's office secured a grant to help get child support from delinquent fathers.

FOX 2 (WJBK) - The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office has received a grant from the state to establish paternity and initial child support orders. It will also fund the enforcement of nonpayment of child support orders through felony non-support prosecutions.

One result is an amnesty program, with those owing $5,000 or more will have their felony warrants waived as long as they begin payments, said Prosecutor Pete Lucido.

"Those felony warrants were here long before I got here but guess what? I'm going to give you a chance to get your warrant lifted," he said. "I'm going to give you a chance to go ahead and start making your payment so those mothers get the money they need to take care of their children.

"We have attorneys that go ahead and establish parentage which means that they're the biological father and then afterward we get a support order when the fathers don't pay. We give them a chance to go ahead and work something out."

Lucido said if the father is disabled and can't work, his office will make the court aware. But if the father is able-bodied, "No way," he said, adding that he wants those children supported.

FOX 2: "How much money do you think Macomb County fathers owe that are not paying?"

"We have 7,500 cases open that are $5,000 or more. Do you know what that means? $38 million there," Lucido said. "But we believe it's more like $12,000, $15,000, $20,000 per case, which will bring it close to $100 million."

Lucido said that in one case, one offender owes about $1 million in child support. He says the biggest victim in all of these cases, are the children themselves.

"Mothers have cried out to me and said, 'I need to get the money to support my children. I don't want to go on services. I don't want to have the (taxpayer expended funds utilized when the father is able-bodied),'" he said. "Do the right thing. Fathers pay your support."