Erik Lazo Padilla

I will now read the story of one Eric Lazo Padilla. That's Eric, E-R-I-K, Lazo, L-A-Z-O, Padilla, P-A-D-I-L-L-A. Eric Lazo Padilla is a 27-year-old father from Queens. He's an American citizen born in New York, but at the age of three moved with his parents back to their home country of Ecuador, where he was raised until he graduated high school, then moved back to New York at the age of 19. As a result of this, Eric's primary language is Spanish, and he speaks little English, making finding a job much more difficult than your average English-speaking American. Eventually, Eric found employment doing electrical work, and at the age of 22 got married and made two children: his son Gabriel, who is now four years old, and his daughter Ariana, age six. In 2024, Eric got laid off from work. His marriage struggled, and he and his wife decided to separate. Upon that decision, Eric's wife decided to place Eric on child support, but he was still unemployed. When the Family Court Child Support Collection Unit did an assessment of Eric's financial situation on the CSSA calculation sheet, he put all the zeros in all columns, including income and assets. When the Family Court attorney assigned to Eric asked him what he did for a living, Eric showed him the W-2s from his former employer, a job he no longer had. Nevertheless, the lawyer took these documents from Eric and used them to calculate child support payments. Eric believes the lawyers did it intentionally, even though he knew Eric was unemployed. With financial help from his family, Eric was able to provide basic child support to himself and children, spending time with him during the week for a few hours and the weekends. As months went on, Eric continued to look for work, doing any odd job here or there, but nothing stable or substantial. Not understanding the system or the consequences of the falsely calculated $650 monthly payment piling up, Eric was now over $10,000 in back child support payments. When summoned to court to answer why he had not been able to pay his arrears, without a hearing or notice, Eric was sentenced to several months imprisonment for civil contempt, which is not following the court's order to pay the child support. Now imprisoned, Eric's children was left without their father, feeling abandonment from missing his during the week visits and weekends with him. Eric lost the support of his family as they accused him of being a criminal, not understanding how someone can be sentenced to time in jail without criminal charges, they assumed Eric was lying that he did commit a crime, and the son and brother they once loved was now a criminal they could no longer associate with. Soon Eric will be released to reside in a homeless shelter instead of on his own or with family. But the bigger sentence, the bigger issue, is that if he doesn't learn the law to correct these errors, or figure out how to find work to pay the child support and get his family back at any moment, without due process, a warrant for his arrest can be issued by a family court judge, and he can be sentenced to even more time than before. Eric needs help, not punishment in the form of imprisonment. Eric has not committed a crime. He is not a criminal. He has not been charged or even accused of a crime, but the courts, or his family, and possibly his children, don't see that. He is automatically labeled and shamed as a negligent father, and forced to live under the immense pressure of uncertainty.