Part I · 2003 · Queens and Nassau, New York
The 2003 Case: $3,000 a Month Based on a Lie
The filing
In 2003, my ex-wife took me to Family Court for child support. I came prepared: I brought documentation showing that I earned $100,000 a year. That was my actual income, on paper, proven.
The lie
She told the court I earned much more. She had no proof of this — no documents, no records, nothing. Just her word against my documentation.
The court sided with her anyway.
The order
The court awarded her $3,000 a month in child support — far more than the child support guidelines recommended for my documented income. An order built on a claim with zero evidence.
Jail
I refused to pay it for a year. I could not accept an order that was based on a lie about my income and set far above what the guidelines called for.
I was subsequently arrested and served three weeks in jail for nonpayment.
The hearing where the judge caught it
At a divorce hearing soon after, before Judge Sydney Strauss in Queens, New York, my ex had put my salary at $100,000 on the divorce papers — the same income I had documented in Family Court, the same income she had denied was true.
I pointed this out to the judge. The judge acknowledged the lie — and threatened to throw my ex and her lawyer in jail.
The "compromise"
They countered with $1,700 a month in child support. I refused: I had just been released from jail and I was jobless. With no job, I argued, the support should have been set at minimum wage — the legal fallback when a parent has no income.
How it ended
In the end, the amount still remained at $3,000 a month. The lie was acknowledged in open court. The people who told it faced no consequences. And the order built on it stood.
Exhibit documents — the conflicting filings, the support order, and the hearing record — will be published here as they are assembled. Docket numbers are being withheld for now.