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Man Gets Prison For Not Supporting Child In Seminole

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TBO.com

Published: September 3, 2008

TAMPA - A man who avoided paying child support for six years will spend a year in federal prison and must pay nearly $25,000 in restitution, court papers state.

Judge Steven J. Merryday on Tuesday recommended that Danny J. Collins, who lives in upstate New York, be held at a minimum-security facility as close as possible to Syracuse, N.Y. Collins also must undergo a year of supervised release.

As part of his probation, Merryday said, Collins must establish a monthly electronic transfer of $308 to pay the $29,478.50 he owes Michelle Wilder of Seminole and their 14-year-old son, Brandon, who has cystic fibrosis.

Collins pleaded guilty in April to failure to pay a support obligation, court records show.

According to the plea agreement, a Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court judge in July 1994 ordered Collins to pay $192 monthly in child support along with $50 monthly for unpaid support and legal expenses. He was found in contempt of court in 1996 for failure to pay child support but was not arrested, the plea agreement states.

Collins moved to Ohio and then to New York, where in 2001 his employer, a construction company, was served with a court order requiring the company to withhold income for child support, the plea agreement states. Collins left that position in 2002, the agreement states.

According to the agreement, Collins paid $203.53 in child support in 1994 and unspecified payments in 2001 and 2002. He stopped payments in 2002.

Collins' attorney, Stephen Leal, said his client had a $5,000 cashier's check at the sentencing hearing to put toward what he owes.

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