$140,000 in back child support equals prison term

A California man, who owes more than $140,000 in child support, was sentenced to 19-48 months in prison on Tuesday.

Rory Dean Walker, 46, has been in custody since mid-December after he was arrested in Rocklin, Calif., for resisting arrest and possession of paraphernalia on Sept. 28, 2023, in addition to the Douglas County warrant, according to his attorney.

Walker was sentenced to jail time in that case and was transferred to Douglas County.

Mary Brown argued that Walker should receive probation so he can begin paying off his debt to the mother of his children.

On May 2, 2023, Walker said he had a trust account that he could use to pay off the child support and that he would be back after converting it to cash.

However, when he was supposed to return to court on May 23, he didn’t appear. Brown said he tried to appear virtually.

Prosecutor Nathaniel Smith, who was at that hearing, said there was no indication Walker was online.

Walker sought probation, citing the two children he has with a new family.

Walker’s ex-wife said that her children are now in their 20s and raising children of their own.

She said it has been 20 years and that she had to raise them without Walker paying his child support.

“I feel my kids have been failed,” she said.

District Judge Tod Young reminded Walker that when he gets out of prison, he still has to pay the $146,134 he owes.

• A woman who stole a purse from a vehicle as its owner was in getting her child from a Lake Tahoe daycare was ordered to serve 45 days on weekends as part of her suspended 19-48-month prison sentence.

Reno hair stylist Kurina Regene Cota, 47, said she was in Stateline to visit a friend, who had to work a couple of extra hours on March 21, 2023.

Cota said she didn’t go to Stateline to steal.

“I was there for different reasons,” she said. “My day fell apart. My friend had to work, and said it would be another couple of hours, and it was blizzarding. I shouldn’t have acted out.”

Cota was arrested at the Round Hill Safeway where she said she had an open container and a .06 blood alcohol content.

The woman whose purse Cota took told the judge that Cota took the sim cards from the three phones in her purse, which included a work phone, her regular phone and an older phone.

“I walked in for five minutes,” she said. “I shouldn’t have left my purse in the car, but I knew I would be coming out with a backpack and books and a project.” She said her daughter continues to be concerned that bad people might find their home.

• A man who was granted a diversion on a felony driving under the influence failed to appear in court because he is incarcerated in California.

Juan Carlos Contreras, 24, is scheduled to be released from Pleasant Valley State Prison in March 2024 after beginning a sentence on April 11, 2022.

That is not quite a year after he admitted to a felony instance of driving under the influence in Douglas County District Court on April 5, 2021, in connection to a July 6, 2020, third DUI arrest.

A no-bail warrant was issued for his arrest. Contreras faces a 1-6-year prison sentence if it’s determined he violated his diversion.