Complaint Review: Department Of Child Support Services - San Diego California

CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES FAILS TO COLLECT FROM SELF EMPLOYED MILLIONAIRE. CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES DISCRIMINATES AGAINST THE BLUE COLLAR WORKERS AND ALLOWS THE RICH TO SKIP OUT.

My ex-husband Ralph Melvin Covell of Cambria, CA is over $60,000 behind in child support. The sad thing is he owns over $11 million dollars in real estate that I can prove ownership in. He has about 60 head of Clydesdale horses and the best part, he owns a collection agency in Las Vegas, NV called Westridge Financial Services.

Ralph lives on a 1,700 acre ranch eleven miles south of Hearst Castle. He raises and shows Clydesdale horses as a hobby and is a real estate investor as well.

I filed for a modification in Child Support with the San Diego Child Support Services in December 2001. Child Support Services sent the necessary documents to Ralph requesting income information. Ralph refused to respond. According to Child Support services hand book, if the noncustodial parent does not respond, he or she will be held in contempt and the estimated income from the custodial parent will be used. My estimate of Mr. Covell's income was $25,000 plus per month based on an option payment he was making on a property in the amount of $25,000 per month, which I had documents proving.

Child Support Services told me the estimated income was to large of an amount and that if I wanted to continue with the modification in support, I would have to file my own motion. I did file my own motion and shortly after found documents that Mr. Covell had an income of $36,000 per month from a real estate deal he was involved in. The modification hearing went on for over two years. I have $80,000 in attorney fees of which the court ordered $20,000 to be paid by Mr. Covell. It isn't being paid.

The modification brought the child support up from $450 per month for each child (two children) to $2,400 for both children, although the oldest one will finish school in June and he will only have to pay $1,400 for the youngest one. The court did not demand Mr. Covell to pay anything toward the $60,000 in back child support he owes. During the hearings the Judge told Mr. Covell he needed to get a loan and pay the arrears in order to get his drivers license back.

Mr. Covell told the judge that he was unable to get a loan. Within 30 days of that day, Mr. Covell had a $950,000 loan, but nothing was paid toward the back child support owed and the court did not so much as slap Mr. Covell's hand for lying about not being able to get a loan. I also supplied the Child Support services with the name of the bank that Mr. Covell was dealing with, according to the recorded loan documents and asked that the bank accounts be levied. Several months later I still had got no response. Finally I was told they couldn't find the accounts.

This isn't the only time Mr. Covell has got out of paying the child support.

1) Mr. Covell filed bankruptcy in 1996. Schedule E of the bankruptcy asks if a child support order is in effect. Mr. Covell did not notify the court of the child support that was owed or that there was an existing case.

2) Child Support Services promised me that the child support would be paid out of the bankruptcy because child support is the first thing to be paid. I was told by child support services that they had been in contact with the bankruptcy court and that everything would be taken care of. On the day that the Bankruptcy was dismissed I appeared in court because child support services wouldn't. I was unable to collect the child support because Riverside Child Support Services had failed to file any of the required documents requesting the support be paid. They were not even listed in the bankruptcy despite the fact that I was told by them that they were.

3)Mr. Covell's bankruptcy attorney, Robert P. Goe contacted Child Support Services in Riverside, Ca. and demanded that the lien against Mr. Covell be lifted because Mr.Covell was in Bankruptcy. Riverside Child support services lifted the lien without checking the status of the bankruptcy, which was being dismissed and despite information I had supplied them regarding the escrow for the sale of Mr. Covell's property including the closing date and escrow number. The property sold for over $7 million dollars just days after the lien was lifted and Mr. Covell did not have to pay a dime of the back child support that was owed. Naturally, Riverside Child Support Services put the lien back in place just days after the escrow closed.

4) The California Nature Conservancy purchased an easement on Mr. Covell property in Cambria, CA for $4 million dollars. The paperwork was done with great cleverness. Mr. Covell was credited $4 million dollars on his $4.5 million dollar purchase through a Canadian corporation, rather then given the money because there was a lien against him for child support. Once again he got out of paying the arrears even though the California Nature Conservancy was well aware that Mr. Covell was behind in support and Child Support Services had been supplied with the information of the sale of the easement.

I can go on and on with the failures of the Child Support Services and other government agency that have helped Mr. Covell skip out on paying his child support.

Currently, the City of Azusa is attempting to purchase property owned by Mr. Covell, but ran through a Nevada Corporation, Integrated Financial Services, LLC. The City of Azusa has acknowledged that Mr. Covell is the owner of the property in the form of a state grant from the California Rivers and Mountains Conservancy as well as recorded messages that I have saved from my Answer Machine, but now, since I contacted them, the story is changing and the City of Azusa appears to be assisting Mr. Covell in skipping out on his child support obligations as well. Child Support Services claims they can't do anything because the property appearing as being owned by one of Mr. Covell's corporation.

The handbook for the Child Support Services claims that if someone is more then $5,000 behind in support and that they are intentionally not paying all the funds, that assets will be sold for the support. Child Support Services has not done anything according to the book other then pulling Mr. Covell's driver's license. Mr. Covell's income and expense statement showed $19,000 a month in horse expenses alone for the hobby of raising his horses. This amount was before Mr. Covell purchased so much as a roll of toilet paper for his family. I will supply pictures of his horses and him showing once I get this posted.

I don't think your hobby should be excepted as you expenses when estimating child support, other then to show that this is part of his income that goes for entertainment, not living expenses. But the child support services accepted it as living expenses.

Mr. Covell's drivers license has been pulled but he drives anyway. He pays $900 per month so that the child support services can say that he is "making an attempt to pay" and they can sit on their hands and do nothing. I guarantee you, if Mr. Covell were arrested and his bail be set at what is owed in child support, Mr. Covell would be out the same day. But Child Support Services will do nothing once again, because they are a government agency hiring people by nationality rather then experience. And because it is a government agency it is hard to get fired if you don't do your job, so Child Support Services doesn't do their job.

Child Support Services continues to discriminate against blue collar workers by throwing them in jail or garnishing wages when they are behind in child support because they are easy prey. While the self employed rich deadbeats get away with not paying or paying the bare amount to keep their butts out of jail

Child Support Services also discriminates against celebrities. Each time a celebrity is arrested for non support, Child Support Services gets a pat on the back from the media. But a wealthy self employed person who is unknown to the public will be allowed to skip out on even larger amounts owed, because they won't bring any notoriety to the Child Support Services.

If anyone is interested in a class action suit against child support services and knows an attorney that would be interested in it on contingency, I have boxes of information to get the case started and to prove that the child support services doesn't do there job.

Katherine

Jamul, California
U.S.A.

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