Relationships are a lot like political campaigns. They start with a lot of promises that probably won’t be kept, look better on Facebook than in real life, and half the time end with heartbreak and somebody owing a bunch of money. Which is something Representative Kevin Wallace can probably attest to.
Via KOCO…
OKLAHOMA CITY —A high-ranking House Republican is accused of not paying child support, owing his ex-wife more than $26,000.
According to court documents, Rep. Kevin Wallace hasn't paid court-ordered child support since a judge ordered it in December 2012. This past fall, his ex-wife, Angela Dee Wallace, filed a lawsuit against Wallace through the Department of Human Services.
The court documents stated Kevin Wallace is supposed to pay Angela Dee Wallace $280 per month for child support. Her lawyer said the lawmaker "has wholly failed and refused to voluntarily comply with said order," alleging Kevin Wallace owes $20,160 -- not including interest -- on child support and almost $6,500 for medical expenses.
For someone like me who just became financially stable enough to graduate from boxed wine to twist cap bottled wine, that seems like a lot of money. But for Representative Wallace, a proponent of the Oklahoma gambling scene who also likes to write bills that help his own hunting business, you’d think that $26,000 would be pocket change. So how did he manage to get so behind on payments?
Kevin Wallace released a statement through his lawyer, Rep. Chris Kannady, saying, "The truth is that my ex-wife and I had a verbal agreement back in 2014 that, in lieu of child support, I would contribute substantially to the needs of my children that far exceeded my legal obligation. I paid my monthly child support obligation every month until we reached that alternative agreement. I have paid over $250,000 in support and payments since our divorce more than four years ago. My mistake was trusting our verbal agreement."
Now, I am not a lawyer and my millennial attention span couldn’t spend more than 60 seconds reading the actual laws in Oklahoma regarding child support. But I did come across a handy guide from the Divorce Law Office in Tulsa, which states that in Oklahoma verbal agreements on child support are not legally binding. If his lawyer, State Representative Chris Kannady, wasn’t too busy worrying about legislating high school football or making the world’s most vague campaign promises to let him know this, Kevin Wallace probably wouldn’t be in this mess.
Seriously, how much does it cost to feed and water a kid? Answer Hayley on Twitter @squirrellygeek
