So-called deadbeat parents targeted for unpaid support in Mercer County and throughout N.J.
TRENTON - The Mercer County Sheriff's Office last week ended a three-day sweep of so-called 'deadbeat parents' that resulted in the arrest of 133 people for delinquent child support payments, authorities said.
File photo The statewide sweep involved all 21 New Jersey counties ending Thursday. In Mercer County, officers arrested a record number of people and collected more than $40,000 from parents who owed child support payments, the sheriff's office said.
"In most every instance, those caught in the sweep had dodged every effort to pay their court-ordered child support obligations," Mercer County Sheriff Jack Kemler said in a release. "Many of those taken into custody were habitual child support evaders.''
Those caught in the sweep who were unable to pay were allowed to schedule payments as a condition of release, the sheriff's office said.
The joint effort included members of the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, Mercer County Probation Division, Trenton Police Department, NJ Division of Criminal Justice, the US Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force, and the NJ State Police.
For more information on how to file a child support complaint or resolve a child support warrant, contact Detective Stephen Mellick at the Mercer County Sheriff's Office at 609-989-6798.
Keith Brown may be reached at kbrown@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBrownTrenton. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.