Father’s Day sweep nets five ‘deadbeat dads’

In what has become as traditional here as giving Dad a tie, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office once again used the Father’s Day weekend as a backdrop for rounding up and arresting a slew of alleged “deadbeat dads.”

District Attorney Mike Ramsey’s office performs such sweeps every Father’s Day weekend and apparently found the action so press worthy that this year it threw Mother’s Day into the mix and snagged some “deadbeat moms” who are also behind on child support payments.

This year, there were 15 deadbeat dads on the list, Ramsey said. The sweep, conducted by four teams of investigators all over Butte County, netted five of them. Altogether, the 15 fathers on the list owe in excess of $445,000 in back child support payments, Ramsey said.

Those arrested ranged from a Biggs man who’s fallen behind by $1,318, to a Chico dad who’s some $72,000 in arrears, having not paid a dime of his $341-per-month support since ordered to in 1990. And coming up with the dough got a bit tougher for him when he was simultaneously arrested for probation violation.

Ramsey said the men selected for arrest in the sting all "purposely" failed to pay their child support, and that those still to be contacted will be arrested as soon as they are found.