Joe Walsh Is Behind On Child Support Payments Again

By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 12, 2013 2:40PM

Eighth District Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Illinois)

Start your morning with a bemused laugh. The Sun-Times reports former congressman Joe Walsh filed court papers seeking to end his child support payments because he’s been too busy trying to build a grassroots political campaign that would “scare Republicans and Democrats” to, you know, look for a real job.

Walsh and his attorney, Janet Boyle, claim his "employment has been terminated through no voluntary act of his own (i.e., he lost his re-election bid) and he is without sufficient income or assets with which to continue to pay his support obligation." Jack Coladarci, an attorney for Walsh's ex-wife Laura, said his client hasn't received child support payments for January or February and that the Feb. 1 filing took them by surprise.

"You still have to keep paying until the judge says you can stop."

Boyle told the Sun-Times that little fact doesn't make Walsh a d- d- de- deadbeat and the filing doesn't seek an end to child support obligations. Instead, Walsh wants his child support payments "modif(ied)" to "a sum equal to 20 percent of his net income until the minor child graduates from high school in 2013."

So why did Boyle and Walsh file a termination request, instead?

“It probably should have been a motion to modify, that’s probably what I would have captioned it. My office used a word that is getting turned around here,” Boyle said. “That’s what we’re asking for, a modification, whether that’s modified to zero or some other number has yet to be seen.”

Walsh told the Sun-Times in an interview he has no intention of shirking his responsibilities and has the pay stubs to prove he paid through January. Coladarci, however, disputes Walsh paid his January child support.