This would be such a story.
The state attorney general's office has prosecuted thousands of parents for failing to pay child support, but none of those has been as "outrageous" as the claims -- and children -- piling up for Howard Veal.Awww forget it. Yeah, I got somethin' to say.
The Muskegon man has fathered 23 children with 14 women, and is more than $533,000 in arrears in his child-support payments, according to the attorney general's office, which has been pushing a case against Veal -- tied to two of those children -- in Kent County Circuit Court.
On Thursday, Judge Dennis Leiber sentenced Veal, 44, to two to four years in prison for failure to pay child support, a felony. With this sentence, the judge far exceeded the state guidelines, which called for Veal to get no more than six months in the county jail.
The case Veal was sentenced on stemmed from his guilty plea in July to owing more than $60,000 in child support to Grand Rapids resident Sherri Black, to whom he made one $87.75 payment over the course of seven years, according to the attorney general's office.
Wood said their investigation revealed that between 1989 and 1999, Veal impregnated at least one woman every year. "Incredibly, in three of those years, the defendant impregnated three women per year ...," the memo said.
For a few months at the end of 2009, Veal got a job working for the Muskegon Housing Commission and some money was taken from his check that went to make portions of support payments. But the total back payments was not touched, investigators claim.
However, even those meager funds never made it to their intended recipients. According to the attorney general's memo, authorities believe when Veal did pay some child support, he was trying to divert a portion of that to Loretta Noble, the mother of four of his children with whom he lives.
Wood wrote that Noble has a home built in 1995 and has two cars registered in her name, including a 1994 Mercedes Benz S420.
Reached Thursday, Noble said she has been in a relationship with Veal for 25 years. She said she warned Veal when they were younger that he would have to pay the piper one day for his sexual activity. But she said he does not deserve prison time, and was stunned by his sentence.
Of the 14 women who gave birth to Veal's children, all but one are current or former recipients of public assistance, according to the state.
No need to lie here: One of the greatest joys in life, other than children, is the unprotected sex that usually proceeds them. Nobody likes condoms. Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, and maybe that's a dangerously flippant comment, but damnit, I'm sorry, it's true.
That said, there's simply no excuse good enough to absolve anyone in this story of their responsibilities. I've got a frat brother who batted for the Pan-Hellenic cycle and impregnated a Zeta, an AKA, a Delta, and an SG Rho. We all know that dude from high school who has a baby by half his graduating class. The problem with illegitimate kids in the black community is not a laughing matter, and I'm certainly not here to let Mr. Veal off the hook. A man who's already got two starting lineups ... the NFL variety, not the NBA one (Offense AND defense. Damn!) of his own has no business working on a special teams unit.
Sports Analogy-game proper.
Howard Veal, clearly has some issues with compulsion. Or maybe it's just a latex allergy. Putting him in jail for a minute is probably best for public interest. He surely can't get anyone knocked up in there. At least I hope he can't.
But come on, if you're woman #12, and you know this cat's already got 3 Muranos full of youngins, what in the hell are you doing letting this man's obviously potent baby batter within a 50-mile radius of your cookies? Seriously. It's all fun and games pointing fingers at the man here, but how selfish a woman do you have to be to lay down with such an ingrate? Is the man's Johnson really that great? And even so, is it good enough to let the dude go raw? And I don't wanna hear that ole' "I didn't know about the other kids" excuse. Wouldn't common sense dictate finding out how many kids a men already has before letting him move in and knock you up? Ask about the man. Check Facebook. Call the health department. Ask his mama. Google him. How could you not know about his other 22 kids? 12 of the Moms live in the same county, the other two in a nearby jurisdiction.
While Mr. Veal is understandably going to jail, part of me says Moms #6-14 might need to spend a weekend or two in the clink for being d*ckmatized and not exercising even a morsel of common sense.
Parenting is a shared responsibility. So is contraception. Strap up, even if you hate it.
Question: While not paying child support and creating a whole roster of kids is clearly illegal, shouldn't getting knocked up by a man already with a whole roster of kids be worthy of at least a stiff kick to the seat of the pants?!?
Man who fathered 23 children with 14 women sent to prison after missing more than $500,000 in child support payments [MLive]
Families paint unflattering picture of man who fathered 23 children, owed $500,000 in child support [MLive]
