Candidate for family court bench owes back child support
A candidate for a family court judgeship in Kentucky owes more than $2,800 in back payments for child support, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
Attorney Carl Knochelmann Jr., running in the nonpartisan race in Kenton County, near Cincinnati, has at times owed as much as $9,632 in a child support case goes back at least until 1998, and the current amount owed dates back to 2008.
Knochelmann’s opponent, incumbent Family Court Judge Chris Mehling, says the debt shows him to be unfit for a judgeship. Mehling’s campaign manager said in a prepared statement that voters could “draw the inference that Carl doesn’t have the proper temperament to be a family court judge.”
Knochelmann’s lawyer in the family matter, Mary Rafizadeh, disputes the debt but won’t go into specifics. Over the years, she explained, there have been many lawyers and several judges involved in the case, and “the facts are not easily determined.”
Rafizadeh added: “Carl is a devoted father. He’s very active in his son’s life. That’s the bigger picture.”
