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Deadbeat Dad Is Just 'Dead Broke,' Agency Says

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By MARK DOUGLAS

mdouglas@wfla.com

Published: February 6, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG - His former wife calls him a deadbeat dad. A state prosecutor wants him behind bars. But a local community organization says David William Earley may just be dead broke.

If so, said Michael Bernstein of Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, the New Port Richey man is in good company.

Earley, who may face prison for failure to pay a quarter-million dollars in child support and for hiding from probation officers, is like a lot of people helped by Jewish Family Services, Bernstein says.

They are financially strapped parents who no longer have custody of their children but still carry the responsibility of helping pay for their upbringing.

"We call them dead broke," said Bernstein, president and chief executive of Jewish Family Services. "We think a lot of people in the population are having personal problems."

After learning about Earley's predicament, Bernstein offered to help with the jobs program his organization offers noncustodial parents who have fallen behind on child support.

Started as a pilot project 10 years ago, the program has helped 13,776 parents in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Miami-Dade counties find work and catch up on their child support. The program was singled out as a model of success by former Vice President Al Gore when he was still in office.

Bernstein says the program generates nearly $5 in child support for every $1 spent helping make them productive workers. The program offers substance abuse counseling, mental health treatment, job training and even car repairs or clothes.

About 80 percent of those who enroll in the program stay employed for at least six months, pay child support, and in some cases even reunite with their families.

Most clients arrive when a judge offers them an ultimatum - the jobs program or jail. About a third of the parents choose jail.

Bernstein said he believes he can turn Earley into another of his success stories: "We feel we can if he's willing to be helped."

It may already be too late.

Prosecutors, tired of Earley's 19-year record of broken promises, are seeking the maximum penalty of five years in prison.

On Wednesday, a judge denied Earley's request to be released from jail, where he has been held since authorities caught up with him at a home in Hudson on Jan. 19. He returns to court Feb. 25.

Earley owes $165,000 in child support payments plus interest that has been accumulating since 1992, a total of some $250,000, a prosecutor said. That puts him in the top 1 percent of deadbeat parents in Florida.

His former wife, Sharon Earley, said she would rather see the money Earley owes her than see him go to prison. She has been trying for 19 years to collect court-ordered support payments to help her raise their four children, three of whom have grown to adulthood.

But despite the hope offered by Jewish Family Services, Sharon Earley doesn't think another chance will make her ex-husband change.

"He refuses to follow court orders and to support his children legally and morally."

News Channel 8 reporter Mark Douglas can be reached at (727) 536-9603. Keyword: Deadbeat, to see an interactive county-by-county breakdown of $628 million in unpaid child support.

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