Deadbeat Dad who Owes Cranston Mom More than $300,000 Sent to Prison

A deadbeat dad who left his wife and children 14 years ago and owes his Cranston ex-wife more than $300,000 was sentenced to six months in federal prison by a judge in Michigan.

Stephen Swallow was sentenced to six months in prison and one year of supervised probation for one year upon his release from jail.

Swallow owes a total of $332,569.67 in back support. Assuming he pays up, 70 percent of the total will go to his ex-wife who raised their four children herself. The remainder — about $80,000, will go to the state to repay public assistance money the family received.

From a Web site that was set up before he was found:

Stephen J. Swallow abandoned his 4 small children in 1999 after the Rhode Island court system garnished his wages for failure to pay child support. He later called his ex-wife on the phone telling her he would just as soon see his children in a homeless shelter before he gave them a dime of support. He's been true to his word and has spent the last 11 years running from state to state to avoid being arrested for failure to pay his court ordered child support.

This is not a story about a man whose child support obligation was so stiff that if forced him "underground" simply to be able to survive. This is not a story about a man who was barely making ends meet and then all of sudden found himself with a child support order that made it hard for him to support himself. This is a story about a man so incredibly vindictive that he used his own children as a way get even the his ex-wife who left him after suffering 9 years of controlling, manipulative behavior and physical abuse by the father of her children. This man had a stable good paying job, owned his own home and was more than capable of supporting his middle-class life style while still helping to support the children he helped bring into this world. This is about a man who had no problem allowing his children to fall into a life of poverty and hardship just as long as his ex-wife never got a dime from him in child support.