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USA February 25, 2000 VNN5549 Comment on this story Take Care Of Your Kids IN THE NEWS IN THE NEWS, Feb 25 (VNN) — From the Milwaukee Journel Sentinel, February 23, 2000 Monk's life blamed for lack of support Man charged in lapse of child payments points to Hare Krishna beliefs By Lisa Sink of the Journal Sentinel staff Waukesha - A former Menomonee Falls man accused of skipping out on child support payments for seven years provided a novel explanation: He became a Hare Krishna monk and earned no money at temples.
The man, John Andrew, 45, "sent us letters basically saying that I'm now a monk and I'm no longer interested in the materialistic society," Assistant District Attorney Barbara Michaels said. "He said, 'I have no way of making an income as a monk and so I will no longer be paying (child support),' " Michaels said. Andrew may have thought that settled the matter, but child support enforcement agents and Michaels thought otherwise. Despite his vow of poverty, Michaels charged him in December with 16 counts of felony failure to pay support for his four daughters, two of whom are now in college. If convicted, he could be imprisoned for up to 32 years. Andrew made his first court appearance in Waukesha this week, after being arrested and extradited from West Virginia. Chanting quietly while sitting in a chair waiting for his case to be called, Andrew later told the court commissioner, "God bless you," as he was escorted back to jail in his orange jumpsuit and sandals. In letters he sent to the county in 1996 and 1994, Andrew, who had a drunken driving conviction, said he turned to the Krishnas and gave up drinking. He said the monk lifestyle kept him from returning to the "four sins: intoxication, meat-eating, gambling and illicit sex." On his back he had a tattoo of flowers surrounding the name Sri Krishna Cainytia. "I've never had anyone say they're unable to pay because of religion," Michaels said in an interview Tuesday. "This is the first one." Andrew's former wife, Judith, said in a telephone interview that her husband's interest in religion was sincere. However, she said that there was no reason why he couldn't work and contribute some money to his children. She has raised them on a single income for seven years. "He's a very capable person. There's no reason why he can't work and still be a monk," she said, adding that he had worked temporarily as a truck driver while serving as a monk. Michaels said that Andrew could try to defend himself under a rarely used exemption in state law that exempts a parent from child support payments if the parent can prove an inability to work. "But he can work - he's employable," she said. Andrew simply chose to become a monk instead of work, she added. For the first four years after his divorce, he worked odd jobs as a painter, janitor and welder and paid child support off and on. When he didn't pay, judges found him in contempt, and in 1993 he disappeared, later to be traced to California, according to Michaels and Andrew's divorce file. "I would hope that a judge wouldn't buy it," Michaels said of his inability to pay. "No matter how he chooses to live his life, he's got to provide for his kids. He brought them into the world." Court Commissioner Gerald Janis set bail at $5,000 on Monday and told Andrew: "Your children did not choose who their parents are." Assistant State Public Defender Elizabeth Weathers told Janis that Andrew has been a monk since 1993, when he stopped paying child support. But she said he also now has a paying job, which she declined to identify, that he has remarried and that his wife also works. Andrew does not qualify for state public defender representation because of his income and his wife's income, said Weathers, who later would not elaborate. However, Andrew had not posted the $5,000 bail as of Tuesday evening and remained in the Waukesha County Jail. Michaels said that she did not know how much Andrew allegedly owed his children because at the time of his divorce, he was ordered to pay 31% of his income. Because county officials don't know his income from 1993 to the present, they can not say how much money Andrew should have paid. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Feb. 23, 2000. Copyright the Milwaukee Journel Sentinel Comment on this story  Contact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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