Child support controversy
In 2000,Neel was ordered by the State of Texas to pay $5,000 a month in child support to his ex-wife who is the mother of his two children,a son and daughter. [1] Instead of paying,Neel fled the country then rejoined his former team in Japan,the Orix BlueWave.
After retiring from baseball after being cut midway through the 2001 season,the remarried Neel purchased a 16-acre 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m2) island in Vanuatu in the South Pacific,where he and his wife ran a 21-room resort which cost a reported $1.5 million [3] overlooking a lagoon. He chose to live there because since Vanuatu did not have any extradition treaties with the United States,this would allow him to stay there for at least five years,then gain citizenship there so he would not have to pay his ex-wife anything. [2] [1] Called "the worst dead beat dad in 'the history of Texas'", [3] he owed over $725,000 in child support, [4] ultimately determined to be $778,000. [3] In 2005,a grand jury in San Antonio indicted Neel on a charge of foreign travel to evade child support obligations. [5] They were not able to do much about it,since Neel was still living in Vanuatu at the time,but this allowed the authorities on the island to not give him a Vanuatuan passport,and therefore,proper citizenship into the island.
His passport expired in 2008,and Vanuatu authorities forced him to leave the country. On December 11,2008,Neel was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport by US Health and Human Services investigators after he exited a plane from Sydney,Australia;he awaited trial in San Antonio,Texas. [1] On May 7,2009,Neel was scheduled to plead guilty in court to avoiding child support payments. Neel faced as much as two years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. [6] [7]
Neel reached a one-lump settlement with his ex-wife,for $116,000 and not the $778,000 he owed, [3] a reduction of 85%. He received no jail time sentence,only probation. [3]
