McHenry County Blog

$43,000 in unpaid back child support is going is costing a 31-year old father a sentence of two years in state prison.   Below is the State’s Attorney’s press release:

DELINQUENT CHILD SUPPORT DAD SENTENCED TO

2 YEARS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

Louis A. Bianchi, McHenry County State’s Attorney, announces that Defendant Michael D. Strobel, a 31 year old Woodstock resident, was sentenced to 2 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections today following a negotiated plea of guilty to the offense of Failure to Support a Minor Dependent.

Strobel pled guilty to the Class 4 Felony and was ordered to pay $43,000 in child support arrearages for the benefit of the minor child.

The defendant had paid child support on a case in Lake County, Illinois, but neglected to pay on the first born child for nearly a decade in this case.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorney Amy Bates of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office Child Support Enforcement Unit.

Read the press release about how a local business was fined $100 a day:

COMPANY FACING $100 PER DAY PENALTY SETTLES CHILD SUPPORT CASE

McHenry County State's Attorney hands $5,000 check for delinquent child support payments to mother which non-custodial parent's employer did not send in a time manner. Flanking the two on the left and right, respectively, are Assistant State's Attorneys Amy Bates and Christina Webb.

McHenry County State’s Attorney Louis A. Bianchi is pleased to announce the collection of $5,000 in a settlement with a local business, on behalf of a child and her custodial parent, for not providing timely child support payments.

The Illinois Legislature and the Illinois Supreme Court have clearly determined that the law in Illinois is that employers who have been properly served with an Income Withholding Court Order and still fail to pay over income to the State Disbursement Unit (SDU) in a timely manner – can be penalized.

Illinois law requires employers to promptly process an order or notice to withhold income and a penalty of $100.00 per day may be collected against employers for noncompliance.

Today, Louis A. Bianchi presented a local mother with the check for $5,000 from the employer (of the non-custodial parent) as its penalty for not having made timely payments to the SDU.

Our office strives to enforce timely child support payments and recognizes that custodial parents and their children rely on swift enforcement and that financial hardship may result from delays in the collection of such payments.

In this case, there were instances when the employer waited 30 to 45 days to forward the child support monies to the SDU. This matter was pursued by Assistant State’s Attorney Amy Bates.

Note: At this time, child support in McHenry County is enforced by the State’s Attorney’s Office and by the Attorney General’s Office in Rockford (for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Service – IDHFS).

If you are experiencing challenges in the collection of child support, please contact either office to determine which office should assist you – or stop by the State’s Attorney’s Office for a brochure explaining same.