PARSONS – A Berryville, Va. man had his bond modified Wednesday in Tucker County Magistrate Court. Dustin Travis Carr, 26, appeared with his attorney, Jeremy Cooper, seeking modified bond and asking that some charges against Carr be dismissed.
Carr, was charged with failure to pay child support and when he failed to appear for his Aug. 6 hearing in Tucker County Magistrate Court on that matter, was also charged with one count of failure to appear. The criminal complaint said Carr failed to pay child support from June 30, 2013 to June 30, 2014. The amount of child support in arrears is $4,423.50.
On Wednesday, Carr’s bond on his failure to appear charge was modified to $1,000 personal recognizance, and his failure to pay child support bond was modified to $5,000 personal recognizance.
“Mr. Carr waived his preliminary hearing,” Cooper said. “We are asking he be put on a personal recognizance bond so he can get out and make money to deal with the issue which brought us here today.”
Tucker County Prosecuting Attorney Ray LaMora asked for one additional thing.
“One stipulation of that bond is that Carr makes every payment of his child support obligation as directed by the court,” LaMora said. “If he fails to make one payment, that is a violation of the bond, and we would ask that he be picked up and returned to incarceration until such time that we can have a circuit court hearing for him.”
LaMora said Carr would not be able to make any of his payments if he continued to sit in Tygart Valley Regional Jail.
“Plus, we would be paying $50 per day for him to sit there,” LaMora said. “I would rather him be out and making money.”
Tucker County Magistrate Riley Barb said his only concern was that Carr had this debt hanging over his head so long, and he still had not made a payment. Barb asked Carr to explain to him what the difference would be this time.
“Do you have a job?” Barb said.
“Yes, doing construction,” Carr said. “I work in Virginia. I filed the paperwork to have the child support taken from my check, and I got that filled out and sent back to the child support people. The boss was supposed to fill his side out and send it back, but I missed court and had to turn myself in. I was working and trying to get them to take it out of my check. I missed court so I turned myself in. I didn’t want to be brought in as a fugitive or anything like that.”
Carr told Barb he could do this if given a shot.
“I don’t want this over my head anymore,” Carr said. “The children are innocent and they ought to be taken care of by me as well as their mother. Their mother is doing all of the work right now and it took two to have them and it takes two to take care of them. I just want to do my part.”
Barb also agreed to a motion to continue the matter of bond forfeiture and a motion to dismiss a misdemeanor charge against Carr for failure to pay child support.
“If you want to do the right thing, I will not hold you back,” Barb said.
By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Avocate