Roscoe Tanner Now Awaiting Extradition In Knox County, TN

It is disappointing that Tanner would not pay even one dollar of his $100 per tennis lesson out of the 25 or so lessons he taught each week toward court ordered child support.

And when he taught tennis clinics for $2500 per clinic, he could not afford to send a $20 bill to the clerk of court to go to his kids.

And when he received $5000 celebrity appearance fees for playing in a televised match, he refused to send even $50 to his kids.

And when he received money from sales of his pictures complete with his personal autograph, he could not send a dime of it to his kids.

And when he received advance fees and promotion fees and book signing fees and royalty fees from the sale of his books, he could not find a way to send $100 now and then to his kids.

But Tanner always was able to find money to gamble away in Las Vegas and Cherokee, NC casinos.

And Runnin' Roscoe was always able to find the money to buy plane tickets when he found out there were warrants for his arrest in California, or New Jersey, or Georgia, or Florida -- leaving the jurisdiction in the nick of time to avoid arrest, staying one jump ahead of the fugitive squad for a year or two at a time.

He always seemed to find the money to rent houses in Germany, or dine in fancy European restaurants.And he always seemed to be able to find "friends" who would allow him to drive sports utility vehicles without having to make payments or buy insurance, and, in one instance, stay one jump ahead of the repo man for nine months or so.

But now, all that running has come to a halt. It is now time for Roscoe to depend upon those same friends who aided and abetted his flight from justice by hiding him out in their houses and provided him with walking around money and high paying jobs without worry of IRS liens our court ordered garnishments.

Those friends should now admit that they were hoodwinked by Roscoe and help him out of this jam by loaning him money to go directly to the clerk of court for child support.

And Roscoe himself should rise to the occasion and sign a contract in front of a judge allowing the district attorney to seize all future book royalties and photo sales revenues to be applied to past court ordered child support obligations, and to allow garnishment of all future revenue from lessons, clinics, and appearances until the past due child support is paid.

He should then be ordered to be available to his children, and provide them with a phone number that they can reach him at. And he should be ordered to visit them at least anually, or every time he is in their state of residence.This is not too much to ask of Roscoe Tanner.

His children deserve it, the taxpayers of California and the other states where his children reside deserve it, and the other non-custodial fathers who make only minimum wage and who have their wages garnished and their professional and driver's licenses revoked for non-payment of child support deserve to see Roscoe treated in a fair and equal manner as the treatment they received. And to go to jail just like they have to when they are in contempt of the court.