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"Deadbeat dad ex-judge Reynold Mason, jailed for four months for failing to pay $250,000 in back child support, was freed yesterday after his ex-wife accepted $30,000.
"I am not making any comment whatsoever," said the former Brooklyn Supreme Court justice after hugging his daughter and blinking in the sunlight outside Manhattan Supreme Court.
Mason, who was booted from the Brooklyn bench in 2003, was ordered to surrender his passport and report back to court in six weeks to show efforts at finding a job.
"I don't feel victory. I feel tired," said Tessa Abrams Mason, who fought four years to get her ex to support their three children - ages 17, 15, and 9. "We shouldn't get tired. We shouldn't settle for less. But I settled because I'm desperate."
Mason, who once earned $136,700 a year on the bench, was thrown in jail in May for owing more than $250,000 and failing to appear in court.
He has said he couldn't pay because he only made $68,000 in 2005 and 2006 as a Georgia Realtor and had to declare bankruptcy to survive.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Lobis initially ordered Mason to pay $75,000 and commit to a payment plan to leave jail. But Mason refused, saying he could only raise $30,000.
Abrams Mason, on disability from a Wal-Mart job, said she compromised because she needed to buy school clothes, pay college application fees for their eldest daughter and pay higher rent because they faced eviction.
Abrams Mason ran her husband's victorious Civil Court campaign in 1994 and helped him to the Supreme Court two years later. When he deserted her, she got him knocked off the bench by reporting ethical violations to the Commission on Judicial Conduct.
"I've been called all sorts of names. Vindictive! Bitter! Gold digger!" she said. "All I'm doing is protecting my kids.
"If he doesn't show up in court again, I will hunt him down again!" she vowed."
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"Deadbeat dad ex-judge Reynold Mason, jailed for four months for failing to pay $250,000 in back child support, was freed yesterday after his ex-wife accepted $30,000.
"I am not making any comment whatsoever," said the former Brooklyn Supreme Court justice after hugging his daughter and blinking in the sunlight outside Manhattan Supreme Court.
Mason, who was booted from the Brooklyn bench in 2003, was ordered to surrender his passport and report back to court in six weeks to show efforts at finding a job.
"I don't feel victory. I feel tired," said Tessa Abrams Mason, who fought four years to get her ex to support their three children - ages 17, 15, and 9. "We shouldn't get tired. We shouldn't settle for less. But I settled because I'm desperate."
Mason, who once earned $136,700 a year on the bench, was thrown in jail in May for owing more than $250,000 and failing to appear in court.
He has said he couldn't pay because he only made $68,000 in 2005 and 2006 as a Georgia Realtor and had to declare bankruptcy to survive.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Lobis initially ordered Mason to pay $75,000 and commit to a payment plan to leave jail. But Mason refused, saying he could only raise $30,000.
Abrams Mason, on disability from a Wal-Mart job, said she compromised because she needed to buy school clothes, pay college application fees for their eldest daughter and pay higher rent because they faced eviction.
Abrams Mason ran her husband's victorious Civil Court campaign in 1994 and helped him to the Supreme Court two years later. When he deserted her, she got him knocked off the bench by reporting ethical violations to the Commission on Judicial Conduct.
"I've been called all sorts of names. Vindictive! Bitter! Gold digger!" she said. "All I'm doing is protecting my kids.
"If he doesn't show up in court again, I will hunt him down again!" she vowed."
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