Deadbeat Dad’s Possessions Auctioned Off Judge Orders Sale To Help Pay $640,000 Owed In Child Support
A crew of auctioneers Saturday sold off most of the worldly goods of Jeffrey Nichols, one of the country’s best-known deadbeat dads, as he sat in a jail cell in the Bronx House of Detention.
As the rain turned to humid sunshine outside a warehouse in this town just east of Burlington, a crowd of more than 400 bargain-hunters and curiosity-seekers gathered to view the furniture, jewelry, artwork and household odds and ends that had filled Nichols’ house in Charlotte, Vt., where he had lived with his second wife, Suzan, who died of cancer.
A New York state Supreme Court judge, Phyllis Gangel-Jacob, had ordered the auction to raise some of the $640,000 in child-support payments that Nichols owes his first wife, Marilyn Nichols-Kane, and their three children.
“I came to show support for a good cause,” said Susan Spaulding, a Vermonter, as she circled the warehouse. Brent Harrington came from Champlain, N.Y., with his 2-year-old daughter, “for the novelty of it all, to see who this guy is and what he owned.”
Vince Pyskaty, who once worked for an auction house in Connecticut, had a slightly different take on the day’s events. “After the great fall,” he said, “the vultures circle.” He shook his head. “This is basically just household junk - it just proves that money doesn’t make taste.”
Nichols was jailed this summer for contempt of court by Judge Gangel-Jacob, who found that he had not made serious efforts to meet his obligations. He also faces sentencing on federal charges of crossing state lines to avoid payments.
Nichols has said the negative publicity surrounding his case made it impossible for him to return to his once-lucrative career as an expert and consultant in precious metals. Over the past year, he has sold Avon products door-to-door and driven a taxi.
Mrs. Nichols-Kane, a Manhattan real estate dealer, clearly was jubilant about the court-ordered auction.
“This represents amazing justice,” she said, watching the crowd. “For six years, I have sought restitution and justice, and I’ve never gotten anything from him. And now it’s actually happening, because of the wonderful cooperation between New York and Vermont.”
She was referring to the two states’ enforcement of the 1992 Child Support Recovery Act, which makes it a federal crime for a person to willfully fail to pay court-ordered support for a child residing in another state. The constitutionality of that act was upheld in the Nichols case earlier this year and again last Monday in a separate case.
Repeated phone calls soliciting comment from Nichols’ lawyer went unreturned.
Evidently, many in the crowd agreed with Mrs. Nichols-Kane’s sentiments, applauding her when an auctioneer, Robert Bluto, introduced her. “In this nation,” she said, “we are going to demand that we as parents take responsibility for the children we bring into this world.” She received a second round of applause. With that, the bidding began.
A cut-glass table lamp went first: $75. Then, an inlaid wooden box: $115. A member of the auctioneers’ crew said that by 11 a.m., she had given out 264 numbers to potential bidders, primarily from Vermont but also from Massachusetts, Florida, New York, Canada and California. She predicted that the event would last all day.
Among the more valuable items listed for sale were a nine-diamond cluster pendant, a banquet-sized array of Waterford crystal, a green Adirondack-style cupboard and a mahogany dining-room set.
Before the auction, appraisers estimated the total value of the goods at $50,000, from which legal fees and auction expenses would be deducted.