Joe Walsh: I had ‘verbal’ deal not to pay child support

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Congressman Joe Walsh

Updated: December 12, 2011 4:01PM

U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Johnsburg, says he hasn’t paid his court-ordered child support because he and his ex-wife reached a “verbal agreement” three years ago that he could stop paying her child support.

Laura Walsh says her ex-husband, elected to Congress last year as a leading voice of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, owed her $117,000 in child support and interest.

In a court filing in December, a month after he was elected, she said he stopped paying child support because, he told her, he didn’t have any money.

The congressman, in a court filing Thursday, says he wasn’t making much money, his ex-wife was making good money, and their kids were spending more time with him than with her.

As a result, he could have gone to court and sought a modification of his child-support obligations, though he didn’t take that official step, his attorney said in the court filing.

“He reasonably relied on Laura’s representations and conduct, to his detriment,” the court filing says.

Walsh said he and his wife decided not to formalize their “verbal agreement” in court because “Joe and his former wife were both tired of court appearances and the resulting emotional and financial impact on the family. Neither party had the financial or emotional wherewithal to continue the battle.”

Laura Walsh’s attorney denied that.

In a written statement Thursday, Walsh’s office said: “By blatantly and knowingly submitting false information in her pleading Laura Walsh and her attorney’s not only broke Illinois state law, but it is clear that the only point in submitting these allegations was an attempt to tarnish the Congressman’s reputation.”

The statement quotes Walsh as saying, “I don’t know why my ex-wife filed this complaint last December, three weeks after I was elected a U.S. congressman.”

Laura Walsh’s attorney, Jack Coladarci, said his client stands behind everything she said in her December pleaading, which they began working on back when Walsh was largely unknown.

After years of not trying to collect money from Walsh, Laura Walsh went to her attorneys after she saw that the then-candidate had lent his campaign $34,000, Coladarci said.

“Last year, when she came to us, nobody thought he was going to win that race,” Coladarci said. “This wasn’t going after a congressman — it was about a guy who had enough money to donate to his campaign.”

In Joe Walsh’s filing Thursday, he includes copies of checks he says show he was making child support and expense payments to his ex-wife during part of the time she said he was not making any payments.

Walsh, elected from the 8th Congressional District last year, announced recently he is seeking re-election in the 14th District.