'Wanted' Father Arrested in Child Support Case

A father of two and former Foxboro, Massachusetts resident was arrested last week on charges that he failed to remit child support payments.

Joel Edward Cornish, a 53-year-old working as a building superintendent in Queens, New York, was placed in the fifth slot of a Ten Most Wanted list for failure to pay child support, issued by the Department of Revenue in February, according to the Sun Chronicle. The estranged father of an 18-year-old and 22-year-old allegedly owes $49,226 in back child support.

Spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Robert Bliss, told the news source that Cornish will be held in New York until he chooses whether to fight the charges in a district court hearing.

Cornish faces criminal charges which could burden him with up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. After a divorce in 2000 ended Cornish's 15-year marriage with his children's custodial parent, he was ordered to pay $366 per week in child support.

Since the state Department of Revenue released its Top Ten list in February, four other parents owing child support payments have been arrested, each of them apprehended outside of Massachusetts.