‘Dead’ Dad A Winner In Child Support Goof State Misses Appeal Deadline In Claim For Back Payments

A missed deadline has killed Canyon County’s attempt to appeal a judge’s decision clearing a man from paying past child support for the 13 years he was presumed dead.

Vance “Toby” Bentley was convicted last April of felony abandonment and nonsupport of his children after disappearing in 1984. He sank his car in American Falls Reservoir, making his family believe he had been slain. In 1996, Bentley was recognized at a Colorado car auction by a Nampa car dealer.

In October, he was placed on probation and ordered to pay $363,000 restitution to the insurance company, which gave his wife $275,000 after he was declared dead in 1990.

Although convicted of nonsupport, Bentley was not ordered to pay back child support for those missing years.

Canyon County prosecutors questioned the judge’s decision and filed an appeal with the attorney general’s office.

Its criminal division chief, Michael Henderson, said the filing deadline was Dec. 16.

The appeal was prepared and mailed on Dec. 15. It also was to have been faxed to the state, Henderson said, but that apparently did not happen. The mailed appeal arrived Dec. 18, two days late.

Bentley’s attorney John Rowe said it is distressing for prosecutors to drag the case out, since the money Bentley owes the insurance company is more than he can pay in a lifetime.

He works at a Nampa fast-food restaurant and is under electronic monitoring. The Idaho Department of Correction has denied his request to transfer his 14-year probation to Colorado where he had lived under an assumed name since 1984.

Rowe said Bentley would make a formal request in the near future, pointing out that he has a wife and a job in Colorado.