PITT COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA
OFFICE OF THE SHERIFF
NEIL ELKS, SHERIFF
|
Press Release
May 24, 2012
Featured Parent of the Week is Captured
Owing $88,000 Moves him from #2 to #1
At 12:30a.m., the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office arrested Joel Williams at a Greenville apartment complex after several tips from the public led to his location. Williams is one of four featured noncustodial parents this week who have long evaded deputies.
Williams owes $88,000 in back child support. A miscalculation in total warrants originally documented him owing only $47,000. This final calculation ranks Williams at the top of the offenders owing the most back child support in Pitt County.
Thanks to the essential help from the public, Operation Support Your Child is proving to be a great success.
“We are so thankful to the media for helping us distribute pictures of these noncustodial parents,” Sheriff Neil Elks stated. “The information that has been given to us from the public has been vital to the success of this operation.”
“Joel Williams has been difficult for us to locate for a long time,” Elks continued. “If not for the tips that have been received, we might still be searching for him. The community working together with law enforcement is the key to keeping Pitt County safe.”
The Pitt County Sheriff’s Office, in a concentrated effort to crackdown on noncustodial parents, launched Operation Support Your Child on May 17 in a month long effort to aggressively collect overdue child support. Within the first week, 47 of the featured noncustodial parents have been located and arrested while another 25 have been recalled.
.
This program will continue through Father’s Day on June 17. Many of the warrants to be served during the enforcement are outstanding by years and total over $1 million.
Williams is in the Pitt County Detention Center under a $125,000 secured bond, $25,000 of which is from a previous charge not related to child support.
For Further Information, contact
Christy Wallace
Public Information Director
252-902-6357
