Jeffrey Nichols, the Nation’s Number One Deadbeat Dad
“a. Offense. Whoever willfully fails to pay a past due support obligation with respect to a child who resides in another State shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
b. Punishment. The punishment for an offense under this section is:
1. in the case of a first offense under this section, a find under this title, imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or both; and
2. in any other case, a fine under this title, imprisonment for not more than 2 years, or both.”
One of the parents considered the most notorious of those who owe child support is Jeffrey Nichols, a former commodities and precious metals investment adviser, who lived in Charlotte, Vermont. Nichols had been married for 16 years to Marilyn Kane, owner of a Manhattan real estate firm. He became dissatisfied with the marriage and separated from his wife in 1989. In 1990, his wife was granted a divorce on grounds of abandonment. At the time of the divorce, Nichols was making $160,000 a year. In the same year of the divorce, Marilyn married David Kane, an insurance broker. Nichols married Suzan Jane Orris, an office worker, who died several years after their marriage.
The child support order for Nichols’ three children was $9,000 a month, $108,000 per year. He became delinquent on the payments and owed his ex-wife $642,550. During the time he was delinquent, Nichols was reportedly living in luxury with his new wife. To avoid paying the child support, Nichols became a fugitive. Nichols even denied being the father of the three children. During the five years following his divorce, Nichols, crossed three state lines, moving from New York to Ontario, Florida and Vermont, to avoid federal authorities who were attempting to serve him with court orders.
In 1995, after being arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Vermont, he spent 114 days in the Bronx House of Detention on contempt charges. In his testimony, Nichols said, “I don’t blame anybody but myself, I have a great deal of guilt.” New York State Supreme Court Justice Phyllis Gangel-Jacob ordered Nichols to pay his ex-wife $580,000 in payments of $1,000 per month, plus 25% of his income over $125,000 applied to the arrearages. This was the most ever awarded under the 1992 Federal Child Support Recovery Act, making this the nation’s largest deadbeat dad case. His case is also the most notorious example of the consequences of the Child Support Recovery Act, which makes it a crime to cross state lines to avoid paying child support. To pay the back child support, Nichols’ possessions were auctioned in Essex, Vermont.
Nichols was arrested again in March 2000. In Federal court, he was found guilty of tax fraud, based, in part, on records revealed during the child-support investigation. He was sentenced to one year in prison, followed by two years probation, and 200 hours of community service. To support his children from his first marriage and two adopted children from his second marriage, Nichols sells Avon products door to door. Commenting on her diligence in pursuing Nichols, his ex-wife Marilyn stated, “I know that many women can’t afford to go after their husbands. I’m doing this for them.” Nichols’ son Joshua supported his mother’s efforts and explained, “She was asking for rent. He would have preferred us to be out on the streets. How do you get repair for such actions?”
