Attorney General's News Release

August 13, 2003

Nixon files to suspend professional licenses of parents delinquent on child support, including pro wrestler

Jefferson City, Mo. — Attorney General Jay Nixon today filed lawsuits in several Missouri courts to suspend the professional licenses of 19 non-custodial parents who collectively owe more than $826,000 in child support. The professions represented include two medical doctors, three chiropractors, a certified public accountant, a massage therapist, a tattooist, and a professional wrestler.

The lawsuits are part of Nixon's efforts to enforce child support orders in Missouri, since his office assumed responsibility for child support litigation July 1. Last month, Nixon filed 30 lawsuits to recover more than $127,000 from employers who were not complying with orders to withhold child support from employees delinquent in paying support.

Nixon said the aggressive action is needed to address the growing and massive problem of uncollected child support. A November 2002 audit showed that of $2 billion owed in Missouri over a five-year period to custodial parents and their children by non-custodial parents, approximately $1.3 billion was going uncollected.

“If non-custodial parents don't pay what is owed their children, the state has an obligation to take whatever legal action it can to recover that money,” Nixon says. “We are going to continue to be very aggressive in going after delinquent parents, including seeking professional sanctions against them, as we are doing today.”

Several professions are licensed by the state and regulated by boards and commissions under the Missouri Division of Professional Registration.The delinquent parents whose licenses Nixon is trying to suspend include (in descending order of amount owed):

• Daniel Schulte, a Nixa engineer intern, owes $171,828.
• David Goldberg, St. Louis chiropractor, $141,655.67.
• William Thomason, Springfield beautician, $133,336.
• Tshiswaka Kayembe, St. Louis medical physician, $81,548.08.
• John Hale, Arnold massage therapist, $69,104.87.
• Michael F. Jones, Springfield physician and surgeon, $65,448.44.
• Gary Libbert, Bloomington, Ill., certified public accountant, $50,300.
• Michael H. Brown, St. Louis barber, $20,357.05.
• Jimmy R. Dixon, St. Robert tattooist, $14,175.76.
• Troy Bell, Cape Girardeau optometrist, $13,315.54.
• Eddie Edwards, St. Louis registered nurse, $12,456.15.
• Billie Joe Middleton Jr., High Ridge professional wrestler, $12,585.
• Lydia Kay Fellwock, Springfield real estate agent, $11,554.30.
• Virgil R. Steuber, Springfield chiropractor, $7,067.03.
• Tony Randall Morehouse, St. Louis barber, $6,924.80.
• Timothy Towers, St. Charles chiropractor, $4,849.15.
• Michael D. Seiler, Florissant insurance agent, $3,988.06.
• Chester A. Palmer, St. Louis barber, $3,455.39.
• Charles T. Owen, Knoxville, Tenn., registered nurse, $2,300.

“The prospect of losing their license for their livelihoods should provide a great incentive to these delinquent parents to make good on what they owe their children,” Nixon said. “No one should be allowed to shirk his or her responsibility and run up arrearages in the tens, and even hundreds, of thousands of dollars.”

Inquiries from consumers should be directed to consumer@ago.mo.gov or 1-800-392-8222 (from within Missouri) or 573-751-3321 (outside Missouri).

All media inquiries should be directed to Press Secretary John Fougere.

E-mail      Phone: 573-751-8844         Fax: 573-751-5818