“Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh’s job requires her to uphold the laws of the Constitution and serve Summit County to the best of her ability. Lately, her approach to dealing with parents who don’t pay child support has gotten a good deal of attention.”
“

Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh’s job requires her to uphold the laws of the Constitution and serve Summit County to the best of her ability.

Lately, her approach to dealing with parents who don’t pay child support has gotten a good deal of attention.

By driving on East Exchange St. toward Route 8 in Akron, the depth of her concern for children not receiving child support from their parents is fully realized.

Where one might expect to see the latest advertisement for a company stands a billboard with the pictures of Child Support Enforcement Agency’s Most Wanted Fugitives for Criminal Non-Support.

If the approach seems unconventional – it is.

They haven’t been done before, at least around here as far as I know, for non-supporting parents, Walsh said. I think they’ve been done for wanted fugitives, but not for what we are trying to do. For too many years before I came into office, almost no one was prosecuted.

Though the method is unique to the Akron area, the magnitude of their effectiveness speaks louder than the enormous photos.

We have more than 100 individuals (wanted for criminal non-support), so the people we feature are those who have felony warrants for criminal non-support, Walsh said.

The billboards aren’t an attempt to embarrass individuals, but a method of sending a message to the community: If you don’t pay child support, it isn’t going unnoticed.

For too many years, before I came into office, almost no one was prosecuted. Now we’ve prosecuted several thousand and collected more than $13 million on felony non-support charges, she said.

Walsh is passionate about child support. It’s considered one of the most important factors in keeping children out of poverty. And, she added, when parents don’t support their children, the effects are very real and very significant, and they’re felt by everyone in the community.

Missing a few child support payments won’t get one’s face plastered on the billboards for all to see, though.

These are people we have been going after for a long time, she said. I’m not trying to throw people in jail, I just want them to pay their child support. We do it if we have no other option. Low and behold, a bunch of these people come up with money even though they say they don’t have any.

Walsh said her office goes to great lengths to avoid reaching the criminal non-support phase. Cases usually run years before they reach the point of having pictures on the billboards. But once it becomes clear that other enforcement measures aren’t working, steps need to be taken to charge the individuals with non-support.

In one instance, Walsh said a man living in Florida was notified by an acquaintance in Akron that his face was on one of the billboards. The man made phone calls for several days demanding his face be taken off immediately.

Though the man has yet to be found, others have not had such lucky fate.

During the week of Dec. 7, 2007, 10 new billboards were posted around the Akron area. These billboards replaced the ones put up in August 2007. Five parents who owed almost $100,000 were arrested from that billboard campaign.

The August billboards were unveiled in collaboration with Child Support Awareness Month, in which individuals could be a part of the Make a Right Turn: Support Your Kids campaign in which non-supporters could make a payment and have their drivers licenses reinstated.

On Feb. 5, 2008, the billboards helped in the arrest of Giovanni Diaz, 25, who owes $9,584. When he appeared unexpectedly in juvenile court for a hearing, an assistant prosecutor was tipped off by family members that he was featured on a Most Wanted billboard.

The billboards are equal-opportunity promoters though.

On Feb. 13, 2008, Dawn M. Newman, 32, of Greenup, Ken. was arraigned on one charge of Criminal Non-Support, a felony of the fifth degree.

She was indicted and a warrant for her arrest was issued on June 15, 2007. At the time, she owed $11,871.54 but currently owes $13,514.70 for two children who are in the custody of their father.

As of today, we have arrested 10 individuals who have been pictured on our Most Wanted billboards, Walsh said.

The popularity of the billboards has gained national attention as well.

In December 2007, Walsh and the billboards were featured on Good Morning America because they believed it was the only such billboard campaign in the country.

The billboards are not the only way Walsh is trying to capture non-support criminals.

We’ve done a couple different things that led to the billboard, Walsh said. We have our Most Wanted posters that we usually do a couple each year. Posters have the pictures of people and we put them on our Web site, too. We’ve done a Most Wanted full-page ad on Mother’s Day every year, as well.

Walsh said that her office is always looking for creative ways to find parents who are wanted for criminal non-support. She said the billboards are a way for the community to get involved and to send a message that we are serious about child-support.

“