From The Tribune staff reports
GADSDEN — Former Trussville resident and local sports radio personality Jeffrey Scott Moore was finally taken into custody after being wanted by the Etowah County Sheriff’s Department, for more than a year, for not paying child support.
Trussville Police arrested Moore after a tipster called in and told them he had been spotted in the city. Police entered Moore’s information into Flock Safety and received a hit on July 25. That’s when they tracked him down and took him into custody.
Moore was placed on the ECSO’s “most wanted” list for a warrant of failing to pay child support, last year. The failure to pay dates back to close to a decade and pertains to one of his children.
The sheriff’s office previously told a Tribune reporter that Moore is on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in failed payments.
Moore was actively sought by multiple agencies, including the Trussville Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. This follows the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office saying in the first story published about Moore that he had purposely fled his place of employment when a deputy arrived.
Moore was to be a guest host for the radio program “The Child Support Hustle,” according to Kenya N. Rahmaan, but that airing was postponed for unknown reasons.
The radio show and blog were created by founder Rahmaan to help in the fight to reform child support. Rahmaan is also the author of a book by the same name.
According to the website, the organization “is working on writing and presenting legislation to politicians in every state that will abolish the use of debtor prisons for punishment against low-income/poor parents allegedly owing child support debt that they cannot afford to pay.”
For people who fail to pay child support in Alabama, state law requires that employers who knowingly hire noncustodial parents are required to deduct the amount of child support from their paychecks through wage holding. Other enforcement measures released by the Alabama Child Support Enforcement Resource Center include:
- Liens may be filed against his or her property or other assets.
- Driver’s, professional, and hunting/fishing licenses may be suspended.
- A judge may sentence a nonpaying parent to jail and enter a judgment for past-due child support.
- Passport applications may be denied.
- Federal and state income tax refunds, state or property tax credits, and state lottery winnings may be intercepted.
- Delinquent support payments may be reported to credit reporting bureaus.
According to the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Alabama Department of Human Services, if a noncustodial parent is at least 30 days behind on payments then CSED can ask a court to find the parent in contempt. The parent responsible for the payments will then be notified and told to come to court. If CSED proves that the parent has purposefully or intentionally failed to pay the child support order, the noncustodial parent will be found to be in contempt of the order.
This story will be updated with comments from the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office when they become available.