The 30-year-old man sued by his parents to move out of their home has fought attempts to collect child support for his eight-year-old son while claiming that his main focus is working to regain custody of the child.
The New York Post obtained court documents showing that Michael Rotondo fought the mother of his son when she asked for an increase in child support payments — and he still owes her thousands.
The mother of the boy, who asked to remain anonymous, asked for an increase in 2016 from payments of only $25 a month, and Rotondo filed three motions to dismiss her suit. Ultimately, a judge ordered Rotondo to pay $56 a week, but the woman told the New York Post that he still owes $2500.
During court proceedings, it was revealed that Rotondo owned two cars, paying insurance on both and storage fees for one, while claiming he didn’t have the funds to pay for child support. The judge on the case reportedly characterized Rotondo’s efforts to find a job as “minimal at best.”
A 2017 court filing obtained by the New York Post showed that Rotondo had been paying $920 a year for car insurance for a broken-down Camaro, which he kept in a storage facility for $162 a month.
“When questioned why he did not sell such belongings, he claimed that they had no value except sentimental, and that he had no legitimate answer for the obvious question of why it made sense to spend more than $9,000 over the last five years to store valueless belongings, at the same time asserting that he could not afford to pay support for his son,” the judge wrote in the ruling to increase the support.
The court proceedings also revealed that Rotondo had been fired from a job at Best Buy in 2015, and is suing the company for discrimination, but the nature of his discrimination claim is not known. He reportedly told the judge in 2016 that he did not want to seek a position in retail or fast food because he only wanted a job where he could remain for at least three years.
Rotondo lost joint custody of his son in September, and has said in media interviews that his primary focus has been regaining custody of his son.
Last Friday, Rotondo appeared on the Alex Jones show “Infowars” and was reportedly given a $3,000 appearance fee. He appears to have used the money for moving expenses and to secure a temporary place to live after he moved out of his parents’ home on June 1, per a judge’s order.
[Feature image: Michael Rotondo/YouTube/Infowars]
