13 suspects arrested for child support fraud
Fort Bend Herald and Texas Coaster, Fort Bend TX, USA, Thursday, June 22, 2006.
Investigators with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office have issued 13 warrants for the arrests of various individuals in the Fort Bend County area for their alleged involvement in organized criminal activity.
Terriann Carlson, spokesperson for the sheriff's office, said that in the early part of May 2006, authorities began investigating several people who committed fraud on the Office of the Attorney Generals' Child Support Division and stole a collective $39,000 in child support payments.
According to investigators, the key suspect, Tonya Jackson, 32, of the Rosenberg area, knowingly issued payment for court-ordered child support with checks that were forged with someone else's signature on an account which she was not authorized to issue checks.
Since the checks appeared to have been sent by the non-custodial parent, the Child Support Division would then issue support payments to the custodial parent, which was Tonya Jackson.
Further, it is evident some accounts were opened for the sole purpose of issuing child support payments. The temporary checks issued from accounts with minimum deposits were later closed due to issuance of bad checks. Payments were also issued from accounts that were closed and/or had insufficient funds in the account.
Jackson then went on to represent herself to other custodial parents as a worker for the Child Support Division and offered to help them in receiving child support payments. Once they received payment they would give Jackson half.
A total of 13 suspects were issued child support payments totaling over $39,000 and all the while the non-custodial parents who are under court order to pay child support had no knowledge of the payments.
Those 13 suspects are Jackson, Bonnie Gonzales, 50, Sonya Hawkins, 31, Tonya Hawkins, 31, Kasey Nichole Patterson, 27, Michelle Lung, 32, Tranell Girtman, 34, Equilla Gardner, 23, Debra Hodge, 41, Roslynn Fridia, 28, Rosylin McGrew Batiste, 34, and Colandra Rena Jones, 33. Each has a warrant issued for engaging in organized criminal activity, with a $5,000 bond.
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Canada's
national "Child Day"
November 20th
Canada's "Child Day" is held on November 20th each year as designated by the Parliament of Canada in 1993.
It commemorates the United Nations adoption of two landmark documents concerned with the human rights of all children and youths. Read More ..
Canadian appointed U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
Louise Arbour took up her duties on July 1, 2004 as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her term in office ended in June 2008.
Mrs. Arbour was a member of the Supreme Court of Canada immediately preceding her appointment to the UN as Commissioner for Human Rights.
Louise Arbour: a colleague we have failed
Law Times, Canada
22 September 2008
This profession - and all of us in it - have failed to protect, honour, and defend one of our most accomplished and distinguished members. We have let Louise Arbour down by our silence when she needed and deserved voices of support.
On July 1, Arbour stepped down as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, an enormously prestigious and important international position.
The gratitude and praise which greeted her at the end of her term was shamefully muted. Arbour was a courageous champion of human rights, and a bold critic of the erosion of those basic tenets in our world.
She was never timid. She was never chained to a desk, was involved, hands on, outspoken, and challenging. She breathed life into the enormous portfolio that she was asked to take on.