In 1987, Lubbock natives, Percilla and Thomas Howard got a divorce and Thomas was mandated by the court to begin child support payment. While he did pay sporadically over the last 29 years, he did not to keep up with the payments.
He now owes his ex-wife more than $320,000.
Percilla sat down with our reporter and shared her story. See the video link.
Divorce
Howard said that Thomas’ child support payments were supposed to begin when the divorce was finalized. Thomas, a Dunbar High School graduate and football player at Texas Tech, had joined the NFL and was playing with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“When he was in college, we had Andre – my first son,” Percilla said. “He [Thomas] was just a different person before he went into the NFL.”
Percilla said that she was almost solely responsible for raising Andre and their second son Thomas.
“I was the teacher, the one to take them to soccer and basketball,” she said. “I think he went to one game. I don’t even remember him playing ball with them after the NFL.”
Court Action
In 2007, due to frustration with the situation, Percilla reached out to the Texas Attorney General’s Office who reviewed her case and took it to court.
At the time, documents show that Thomas had overdue child support of $257,124
Court documents show that a Lubbock Judge reviewed previous court dealings and determined that earlier judgments requiring Thomas to pay $150 monthly had not been sufficient.
The Judge upped the requirement to $370 per month and mandated that Thomas’ employer at the time, Rip Griffin, pay that portion of his income directly to Percilla.
Percilla said that initially the 2007 ruling seemed like a victory. But, just a few years later, she said it was like “nothing had happened.”
QDRO
In December 2016, lawyers with the Attorney General’s Office came back to court to try and reach a new determination in the case.
In December, court documents show that Thomas, despite paying more than $56,514 in child support, still owed $322,186.
The court, presided by Associate Judge Patricia Moseley, ordered a Qualified Domestic Relations Order or QDRO.
The order requires Thomas’ NFL retirement account to pay half of the monthly payment directly to Percilla.
Percilla said she is optimistic that the new order will make a dent in the child support owed, but she is still worried.
“I want to be paid what’s owed me,” she said. “What I don’t want to happen is what has happened in the past.”
The Next Steps
As of 2016, Thomas has paid more than $56,000. Despite those payments, the total amount owed is still more than $322,000.
Lawyers with the Attorney General’s Office explained that the high payment number, is likely a result of the large salary Thomas received while playing in the NFL.
According to Terrell Thompson, a Senior Regional Attorney with the AG’s office, the process of determining an appropriate child support payment has changed over the years.
He told our reporter that new laws have created a cap for a “reasonable” amount of child support pay. In 1987, he said, that cap didn’t exist and the percentage would have been based off of Thomas’ entire salary.
“In these days and times there is a presumptive cap about what the percentage should be and what the amount should be,” Thompson said. “If you exceed that amount, you have to go into an analysis of what the children’s needs are and what the payment should be.”
“If we were starting over on a case today versus what was done 30-40 years ago,” he said, “it might be a very different result.”
Thompson said that while the amount owed may not reflect current standards, that doesn’t mean Thomas’ can choose not to pay it.
“The reality,” he said, “is that there was an expense to raise these kids and a court determined that this was the appropriate number to raise these kids when that happened.”
It would take another separate court order, Thompson said, to change the amount owed. And both Percilla and Thomas would have to agree on the new ruling.
Our reporter reached out to Thomas Howard before this story aired and met with him. Thomas decided not to comment.
