So here's the deal on the child support issue thing:

In January, after the ex and I had our big argument, I knew she was going to file something in court. In fact, I had a hint that it was coming in December. She wanted something in writing on the payments for the horseback riding. Knowing the way her mind works, she still would have filed for the modification, but she would also have a written agreement that could have forced me to pay for the horseback riding in addition to the upward modification. Her first husband committed suicide and she wasn't going to be receiving any more money for her older kids. He was sending over $500.00 per month.

(Incidently, the conversation I had with her about his death was chilling. She kept saying how she wouldn't want anything like that to happen to me in this very strange tone of voice.)

So anyway, in January after our big argument she sent me an email saying she didn't want any more money from me, and that she would send me everything back that I had sent. That's when I really knew that the axe was going to fall. But I figured if I really got hammered, I could make her pay.

What do I mean by that? Well, I think for the past decade or so, her husband has been doing auto mechanic work out of her house without paying any taxes. A few years ago he built a barn in the back of the house, and put an auto lift in and a parking area. Then he built a high fence so that no one could see. The house phone has an extension that rings out there. In the fall my daughter even told me that he had an employee helping him.

Then she filed the modification and I had her. There were a few "apparent misstatements" in the modification. She claimed that my daughter's horseback riding lessons were therapeutic and tried to make it look like the school was requiring her to take them. She claimed that she spending $10.00 per week on music lessons that my daughter wasn't taking. She said she spent $25.00 per month on hardcover books for my daughter that turned out to be books she could have gotten from the library. She had a estimate of how much it was costing her to transport my daughter around which would have her car getting 8 miles per gallon. She said that she needed a new computer for my daughter when the family had one with high speed internet access, and a fax and printer attached. (and after I had given my daughter her own computer just a couple years ago. The cd-rom broke shortly after she got it, but it was a $50.00 fix).

The biggest "misstatement" though was her income affidavit. She was claiming a net household income of around $31,000.00 per year, including her husband's income. But she listed her expenses at $51,000.00 per year. Even figuring in my contribution and her former husband's child support, there was at least an extra $10,000.00 above and beyond her gross.

And I knew what she was living like. The whole family would take trips and vacations. There were extra cars. They were constantly remodelling the home and putting additions on. They had TVs in almost every room. My brother-in-law, who runs his own shop and has three employees, said that he paid his experienced mechanics $40,000.00 per year, and that the ex's husband must be grossing that or he could just go get a job. The guy is a hard worker, and he is in his shop almost every day. I've called during the week and on the weekends, and more than half the time he picks up in the garage.

At the actual support hearing, she had to turn in her tax return, and it backed up her financial affidavit. Joint return and nothing on her husband's garage income.

So, I've got her. From the information I have I could probably prove her husband is a tax thief, and I could make her pay a heck of a lot more than my child support went up. The financial affidavit and her taxes plus some zoning documents and a few photos, and I could really make her life miserable.

And I have a fair bit of motivation to do so. She's been saying some really crappy things about me to my daughter. She left that wonderful note on my door telling me I was a worthless, piece of shit excuse for a father. She's done other very nasty stuff in the past too. I'm amazed that she goes to church every week. Two days after leaving that note on my door, that's where she was when I went to pick up my daughter. Church. Feeling holy about herself.

The question is though: what's in it for me? What do I really get out of turning her in? Does it help my daughter? It certainly doesn't increase her financial resources having her mother and stepfather possibly put in jail. And of course I would be the bad guy in all this. I'm not the one who is probably cheating the government out of thousands every year, but somehow I have the strange feeling that I would end up taking the fall here.

So I think I'll just leave this entry here. The support didn't go up all that much anyway.