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| A brief oasis of happiness in a desert of animosity. |
Levi Johnston owes more than $38,000 in unpaid child support to Bristol Palin -- according to team Bristol.
Bristol's lawyer tells TMZ, Levi hasn't made a child support payment for the ex-couple's son Tripp since June 2010 ... 22 months ago.
According to court records, Levi is required to pay $1,750 a month -- which means his outstanding balance is $38,500.
As for why Bristol hasn't attempted to enforce the order -- via wage garnishment or otherwise -- Bristol's attorney tells us, "We forbore pursuing child support collection in the (perhaps naive) hope that Mr. Johnston would do what men are supposed to do and pay his support obligation voluntarily."
The lawyer adds, "We were also concerned that garnishment or other aggressive collection efforts could exacerbate an already strained relationship" ... no kidding.
We're told Bristol is still holding out hope that Levi will pay. So far, no word back from Levi's camp.
I would love nothing more than to say this is bullshit. But I can't.
There are extenuating circumstances, that I hope to share soon, but for right now I promised to stay silent. (Here is a hint: All of you are not the only ones surprised by this news.)
I will however say that there was an easy way to avoid this WHOLE thing, and it was a way that I suggested to "Team Levi" way back when the issue of child support was first brought up.
In Alaska we have an agency called CSED (Child Support Services Division), whose job it is to make SURE that the payor goddamn well pays the payee on time and in the correct amount.
This removes ANY opportunity for one parent, or the other, to make false claims out of spite, and it makes damn sure that the parent who is in arrears pays up, one way or the other. This is especially important when you have the kind of messy breakup that Levi and Bristol had.
I remember insisting to Tank Jones at one point, that they waste NO time in filing paperwork with CSED to protect Levi, and of course Tripp, from this very thing. Tank, of course, assured me that everything was handled.
As you can see that was just more bullshit.
Levi has received the worst advice imaginable on how to handle all of this, and now he has been painted as a dead beat dad. As a father I cannot imagine carrying around a more hurtful label.
In my opinion Levi has every right to sue Rex and Tank for every dime they have. They mishandled his career, mishandled his child support situation, and essentially destroyed his reputation.
Now let me ask you this, does anybody else wonder if they did this out of sheer incompetence, or whether or not there is something even uglier working behind the scenes?
Stay tuned.
P.S. One more thing, in Alaska child support payments and visitation, are two SEPARATE issues. We do not pay for the right to see our children.
If Levi had an honest, capable attorney he would NEVER have had to miss time with his son. And neither would Sherry and Sadie.
Update: Here is the original custody agreement, courtesy of Radar Online.
According to these Levi is supposed to have Trip every Wednesday and Saturday.
Kind of hard to do when the mother moves the child to Arizona for extended periods of time, or takes him along to California to participate in a reality show, now isn't it?
By the way, neither of those choices were discussed with, nor approved by, Levi. In fact he did not even know they were in Arizona until I contacted Sadie and gave her the heads up.
Update: For the slow people in the room let me clarify.
Yes, my understanding is that Levi DOES owe this amount, or a similar amount in back child support.
What I said is that there are extenuating circumstances as to the reasons, but taht I cannot expand on them right now.
If it had simply been bullshit, I would have said "This is bullshit, but I am unable to give details at this moment." I tried to, at the very least, let all of you know that the Palins had orchestrated this to hurt Levi and that they had also made it impossible for him to meet his obligations.
Let me ask, would you all have rather I simply let this story sit out there without comment? Or was I right to tell you what I could now, with the hopes of following up with more later?
