Though a Texas child support matter involves a celebrity, it also demonstrates the difficulties that custodial parents are often forced to undergo before receiving the child support payments that are owed. As in so many cases, the non-custodial parent has been reported as being uncooperative and far behind on child support payments.
A woman from Houston claims that professional football player, Brandon LaFell, is obligated to pay her $4,000 a month child support based on a temporary order that was earlier filed. As LaFell has purportedly has only been making payments of $1,500 since June, it appears he is now behind $23,000 in his child support obligations.
Making the mother’s circumstances more difficult, LaFell currently lives out-of-state and plays football for the Carolina Panthers. The Panther’s have also been listed in the petition filed by the mother’s attorney for failing to withhold child support payments from LaFell’s paycheck.
LaFell’s attorney contests the fact that $4,000 is owed – though the mother claimed there is no order in existence that would substantiate that only $1,500 is owed. The mother of the couple’s child is also seeking attorney’ fees concerning this particular child support dispute.
To put matters in perspective, LaFell is making $540,000 a year as part of a 4-year deal, and this amount is likely to increase in the coming years. A court order has been created ordering for him to pay a certain amount in child support. In the meantime, he is the father of a son for which he is apparently not paying the full amount of what has been ordered.
Source: Charlotte Observer, “Houston woman: Panther owes thousands in child support,” by Joseph Person, Dec. 12, 2012
