Created: 3/6/2007 1:30:41 PM 
(Lexington County) - Investigators with the Lexington County Sheriff's Department Fugitive Unit have arrested 14 deadbeat parents who live outside of South Carolina on criminal arrest warrants for not making court-ordered child support payments in Lexington County.
The 14 deadbeat parents owe a combined total of $448,027 in court-ordered child support payments.
Sheriff James R. Metts said fugitive investigators are scheduled to return one of the deadbeat parents, 49-year-old James Alan Rinehart of 190 Seminole Lane, Unit 403 in Cocoa Beach, Florida to the Lexington County jail at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Lexington County Clerk of Court Beth Carrigg said Rinehart owes $15,024 in unpaid, court-ordered child support payments in Lexington County.
Metts says the 14 deadbeat parents who have been arrested by the Fugitive Unit this year have either been returned to Lexington County or are in the process of being returned to Lexington County so they can appear before a family court judge to resolve their failure to pay court-ordered child support.
?These arrests reflect the commitment of the Sheriff's Department and Clerk of Court's Office to track down deadbeat parents wherever they are,? Metts said. ?Deadbeat parents no longer can flee South Carolina in order evade making court-ordered child support payments.?
Under South Carolina law, deadbeat parents can be charged with a criminal violation that carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,500 fine. The punishment can be imposed in addition to any penalty that a family court judge hands down for not paying court-ordered child support.
On February 28, 119 deadbeat parents turned themselves in and 38 deadbeat parents were arrested on family court bench warrants that were issued after the parents did not make court-ordered child support payments in Lexington County.
The Sheriff's Department and Clerk of Court's Office conducted Operation Last Chance on February 28 to provide 413 deadbeat parents with a final opportunity to turn themselves in on family court bench warrants that were issued in Lexington County.
Metts and Carrigg said the 157 deadbeat parents who were served with family court bench warrants on February 28 paid a total of $87,058 in court-ordered child support payments. The two family court judges who heard cases on February 28 during Operation Last Chance re-established payment plans for deadbeat parents and took other actions to dispose of cases in which parents owed a combined total of $1.7 million in court-ordered child support payments.
According to deputies, Operation Last Chance exceeded expectations, with 38 percent of the deadbeat parents who were wanted on family court bench warrants taken into custody.
?This partnership has brought numerous delinquent parents to justice through hard work and dedication,? Carrigg said. ?We share a common desire to see all deadbeat parents apprehended in an effort to provide children in Lexington County with the court-ordered child-support payments that children deserve and need.?
Information about deadbeat parents is available on the Sheriff?s Department web site: www.lexingtonsheriff.com.
