By Julie Manganis
Staff writer
November 29, 2008 05:50 am DANVERS — A former Danvers man is in custody today, after traveling out West for nearly a decade in what officials say was an effort to avoid paying more than $50,000 in child support. A prosecutor is crediting Daniel Delaney's ex-wife for her persistence. "She has been really pushing to find him," said prosecutor Mary Ann DiNatale of the Department of Revenue. Delaney, 47, was arrested last month in Nevada on unrelated charges, DiNatale said this week. Authorities there discovered a 2003 warrant from Massachusetts charging Delaney with non-support of a minor child. Delaney was brought back to Massachusetts earlier this month and is now being held on $50,000 cash bail — about half of what the DOR says Delaney owes in support payments, penalties and interest. On Wednesday, Christine Cote was in Salem District Court with her two sons, her new husband and other family members for a pretrial hearing in Delaney's case. It's been a long struggle for Cote, who raised her two sons, Brandon, 21, and Ryan, 19, alone for several years before remarrying. In 2005, her new husband legally adopted the boys. Delaney couldn't be found at the time to sign away his parental rights. His $117-a-week court-ordered support payments slowed down starting in 1999 and eventually stopped. Meanwhile, Delaney moved around the country. When Cote would find him, the DOR would send a notice of wage assignment to his new employer, seizing part of his pay, and he would move again. DiNatale said they tracked him to Arizona and began collecting some support, only to have him vanish again. They found him in the state of Washington, and then he moved again, she said. Cote, said the prosecutor, "has been a real advocate," contacting DOR every time she got some new information. There had been some payments recently, Cote said, money that helps buy food and pay college expenses. But years have gone by without contact, not even a birthday card for his sons, she said. Delaney waived extradition in Nevada and agreed to come back to Massachusetts with state troopers. Now he's being held at Middleton Jail, unable to come up with the $50,000 bail — money the DOR might be able to seize if it is posted. Delaney never made it onto any of the "Top 10" lists or posters the state puts out periodically to alert the public to missing parents who owe child support. But it doesn't make his case any less important, DiNatale said. "This is not a debt you can ignore," she said. Delaney will be back in court Dec. 16 for a hearing in his case.
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