‘Deadbeat dad’ loses state job following non-support conviction

Thursday, Dec. 18, 1997 | 9:25 a.m.

"I'm unemployed and unable to pay a dime's worth of child support," said Bill Mantik, 49, convicted last week of failing to pay support for his three children from January 1994 to November 1996.

Mantik, who faces sentencing Jan. 26 on the felony charge, had been working at a prison medical facility, training inmates on how to become dental technicians.

But when he returned to the job Friday, he found he had been transferred to the prison pharmacy. And on Tuesday, he was told he was being terminated from the $28,000-a-year job he had held for two months.

A prison spokesman said Mantik was rejected from his probationary status, but offered no further explanation.

Mantik's lawyer had argued his client had at first been unable to work because he was an alcoholic and had medical problems - and later on had lost job opportunities because of the accusation he was a deadbeat parent.

Punishment for the crime ranges up to six years in prison but probation is available.