Noteboom The Law Firm

Veteran Prefers Jail To Paying Alimony

September 9, 2010 - Joseph Dzuibak is a veteran collecting Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation. Dzuibak is also severely disabled and ill. He has suffered at least one heart attack, and possibly a stroke as well. Despite this, Dzuibak is currently serving a 10 day jail sentence in the Freeborn County jail after being charged with Contempt of Court after he refused to pay his court-ordered alimony to his ex-wife out of his VA disability compensation check. 

This is not the first time Dzuibak has been told to pay his alimony from his disability check; he was first arrested last May. Dzuibak's physical condition, however, presented concerns to the jail, and he was released with an electronic monitoring device.

He isn't being released this time around. This time he is being held in a cell segregated from the general population. The judge placed him under 24 hour observation in the cell they use for prisoners on suicide watch. Should Dzuibak not pay his alimony next month as ordered at the end of his 10 day sentence, he will be jailed for 30 days. Because Dzuibak is being held on Contempt of Court charges, he can be held for an indefinite amount of time.

Although alone in his cell, Dzuibak is not alone in choosing jail over having his VA disability compensation treated as income. Once it is considered income, Av disability benefits can be used to pay for things like alimony. Dzuibak, along with other veterans, maintain the United States Code prevents veteran's benefits from being attachable. Problems arise because many civil courts refuse to recognize that federal law.

For many veterans, their disability compensation makes up a majority of their financial resources. While there has been talk of changing the way veteran's benefits are handled during a divorce and being treated as income, this issue continues to hurt veterans and take away the benefits they have earned through their service to this country.