FAMILY LAW DAILY NEWS

Dauphin County homebuilder garnished worker’s checks however didn’t go on youngster assist funds: police

Police charged the owner of a Hummelstown construction company with theft after they say he garnished a worker’s wages for child support but never passed on the money.

Merill “Bud” Miller, 61, deducted $2,295 from his employee’s paychecks through November this year, but did not forward the money to the county domestic relations office as required by law, police wrote in an affidavit filed Thursday.

The investigation began on Oct. 20 when the domestic relations office reported the situation with Miller’s company, HFDH Contractors, to police. An officer talked to Miller, who said he had made the payments to the domestics relations office, but at least one payment came back to him in the mail because it was improperly addressed, according to the affidavit.

Police warned Miller that evidence suggested he could be violating the law and told him to bring the account up to date.

“Miller asked why the parties could not handle these payments themselves, leaving him out of the process,” the officer wrote in the affidavit.

But the rules do not allow such an arrangement. They require that the employer make the deductions, the officer told Miller in an email.

Miller then disputed the total amount that he needed to send the office to bring the account up-to-date, police said. The officer then researched Miller’s background to discover he had prior convictions “for theft-related matters” including theft by failure to make required disposition of funds.

Police gave Miller 10 days to rectify the situation or it would result in a “continued criminal investigation.” No payments were made, according to police, even though the worker said his wages had been garnished every month.

The affidavit did not include information on how the lack of child support impacted the family it was intended to assist.

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