After less than 20 minutes of deliberation, a jury in Brown County has found a 42-year-old Arkansas man guilty of not paying child support here.
Michael Lusinger was convicted on two counts of nonsupport of a dependent child, both Level 6 felonies, after a jury deliberated for 16 minutes, a press release from Prosecutor Ted Adams states.
Lusinger had failed to pay child support over a span of nearly two years even though he was employed.
“When we filed the matter, Mr. Lusinger had accrued child support arrears of nearly $35,000, had left the jurisdiction and had a span of nearly two years of not paying any child support,” Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tracey Yeager said.
“He had a history of not showing up for court as ordered. We had to go to Arkansas to find him after he left the jurisdiction.”
Lusinger did not show up for his felony jury trial either. He was tried in absentia.
Local attorney Jacob Moore was Lusinger’s public defender.
“The court found that he knew he was to appear for trial and simply did not appear,” the release states.
After conviction, Judge Mary Wertz issued a warrant for Lusinger’s arrest without the possibility of bond until he appears before the court. He faces up to two-and-a-half years behind bars on each count, according to the release.
The prosecutor’s office intends to extradite Lusinger to Indiana if they have the opportunity to do so, Yeager and Adams intend to seek jail time for him.
“When it comes to child support enforcement, I am often perplexed by the minority of people who wonder why we would pursue, convict, and possibly incarcerate deadbeat parents. Their argument is a felony conviction and incarceration will prevent them from being able to work,” Adams wrote. “I would ask them this: Are we to reward these deadbeat parents for not paying child support?”
Adams said that if his office files felony nonsupport charges, that means that “generally all other efforts to encourage payment of support have been exhausted and have failed.
“I do not believe we should reward such a lack of personal dignity and basic parental responsibility. I choose to think of the children,” he wrote. “Moreover, we do not discriminate in our enforcement. We have filed against deadbeat dads and deadbeat moms alike.”
