WOODSTOCK, IL — The Cary man who was found unresponsive in his McHenry County Jail cell Friday, Nov. 17, committed suicide amid overwhelming financial stress caused by court-ordered child support payments, according to a source close to the family. Thomas Doheny, 51, of Cary, was found by jail staff in his single-occupancy cell at about 8:10 p.m. Friday.

A press release from the McHenry County Sheriff's Office said the staff "immediately began life-saving measures" upon finding him. He was then transferred to Centrega Woodstock Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:53 p.m.

The coroner's office press release said Doheny's autopsy revealed "no suspicious injuries or significant natural disease."

Doheny had been held at the jail since Nov. 1, when he was taken into custody in contempt of court. He was in court dealing with a divorce filed against him in 2014, according to the source who was close to Doheny but wishes to remain anonymous.

"The judge just got upset and incarcerated him," the person said. Formerly quite wealthy, Doheny was working to reduce the $20,000 monthly child support payments to his ex-wife, which he could not afford, according to the source.

"He doesn't make that kind of money. He did five years ago, but his situation has changed," the source said in a Nov. 14 email to a local newspaper as part of an inquiry about the legality of child support payments from incarcerated parents.

The source claims that Judge Michael Coppedge, who presided over the case, failed to consider the information provided by Doheny and made it impossible for him to afford child support payments. Doheny was fired from his job as the result of having to make 260 court appearances in the last two years in attempts to lower the payments. The source said his company hired an attorney to keep up with all of the subpoenas his ex-wife sent.

Doheny left letters for loved ones, including four children, but police have yet to release them, according to the source. "They won't even give us copies."

Patch asked a sergeant at the McHenry County Jail about the jail's criteria for placing an inmate on suicide watch. The sergeant referred questions to a supervisor, who did not return a message from Patch Tuesday.

An attorney for Doheny also did not respond to a message from Patch.

https://patch.com/illinois/crystallake/cary-man-committed-suicide-mchenry-jail-cell-source

Arrest the judge.

He must be loaded.

Holy crap.  Sorry for the kids.

OTOH, I guess his ex is available?

Insane. But not shocking, considering it's in IL.

Guess she lost her cash cow.

I had something a bit harsher in mind.

What the fuck is wrong with that judge? How can you just blatantly ignore the fact that the guy went from having a shitload of income to ZERO income, and pretend it has no bearing on his ability to pay? Also, why is anyone, ever, being required to pay TWENTY FUCKING THOUSAND dollars a month in child support?

Fucking hang the judge

Now the bitch gets nothing..........

Guess that didn't work out as well as she thought it would.

Modern day slavery exists and judges are the modern day equivalence of slave owners in child support cases.

I got hauled in over and over and over [I was NEVER in arrears] by the ex to the point even the "friends of the court" person asked her exactly why she kept doing it. We are talking in some cases of $2  a week.

Yup.

Edit: So I guess "cruel and unusual punishment" doesn't apply here since this isn't related to a crime. That sucks.

This state is unreal when it’s comes to unfair child support against fathers.  I know first hand.  Insanity.

More of that male privilege

“Fuck you, pay me”

I wonder how that $5k a month was being spent per child.

Private school?
New bespoke clothes every month?
High quality food?

4 kids and 20,000$ a month?

in the 80's my mom got 80$ a month

its always been way to much or way to little

^^^ This ^^^.... and the fucktard bitch ex-slut and her asshole attorney.

Damn.  Just damn.

Sitting in jail for upsetting a judge who was railroading him.

Edited to add this. . . .

Attached File

The system is broken worse than his marriage.

260 court appearances?  That is one crazy bitch.

Makes the redhead nurse horse chicks seem normal.

Good luck! That seems like a fool's errand.

What fucking judge would even entertain that number of appearances?

The best thing about this is that the bitch will get NOTHING and hopefully it will change something in child support.

Plus a Mercedes, a few Louis purses and the weekly visit to the spa.

Oh well, greedy bitch wife, her 260 subpoenas, and her attorney are getting fuck all now.

Sucks that he had to kill himself to get the monkey off his back.

Judge and ex both need to fry.

And this is why you should rent pussy these days. Never ever buy it.

He'd have been a lot smarter plotting against the wife, the attorney, and the judge. Seeing as he was planning on checking out anyhow.

And make him pay child support to the dead man's kids.

Hopefully the attorney sends her some huge final bills now.

The crazy one is the judge that allowed her to do it over and over and over again.

Fuck that judge and that ex bitch of his................poor bastard

Wow, I would like to make over 20,000 a month.

Talk about judge being moron.

This is one of those circumstances where I would totally understand going killdozer.

Wouldn't fault him even a bit.

White heterosexual males totally have privilege though guys. Like, soooooo much privilege.

You have to understand the system and it’s actual intent.

The basics:

First and most importantly it isn’t child support. It’s a tax of opportunities for the state.

Second, it relies on the disproportionate custody bias against fathers.

Third. The money is sent to a central collection fund where the interest is skimmed by the state. It’s is calculated into the fiscal budget of the state.

Once you understand this, the rest of the entire family court system bullshit comes to light.

For instance, Men make more money than women as an average. Support is based on combined income and standard of living that income gives. It is awarded proportionality, well not really. Many single mothers receive state or federal assistance. It would be a loss to the state to upend the tradition of maternal custody since the fund of support payments would be lower and thus impact the states budget.  It is in the best interest of the state to take every single penny possible in a support case.

Child support is worse than eminent domain, asset forfeiture, illegal taxation, and having a standing army live in your house all together. The state can and will fuck your ass raw at will with impunity.

No.

She fucked him.

Now he pays her.

State sanctioned slavery.

Seems like the ex wife should have been smart enough to realize that her slave at least needed enough income to feed himself.

Judge should be tar and feathered

I doubt even karma could be a bigger bitch.

Here's hoping though.

Sadly nothing will change.  I have a friend paying alimony of about  $3500 a month as well as his ex's health insurance.  He also gave her a house a car and a lump sum of money.  In addition he completely paid 4 his 2 children to go to college. He has at least 9 or 10 more years of alimony.

I find it hard to believe this isn't fiction.

Don't stick your dick in the crazy.

I'd have been doing some killing. But I wouldn't be killing myself.

I have been drug to court enough by my ex wife to see this happen to others first hand.

Single FOREVER!!!!!!!!

I HAD to yearly update my earnings and have an increase in my CS if needed [besides her hauling me in more often then that]. When I got full custody at 12, guess how many times the court [she was a nurse] made her update her earnings before my son turned 18? If you guessed less then one, you'd be right.

Damn.

Wrecked his home life, took away his high paying job with harassment court appearances, took away his freedom, and made him so hopeless that he offed himself.

FUCK Illinois.

How ya like them apples, bitch? Your gravy train just came to a screeching fucking
halt, dinnit?

First video: Straight to 1:10 for context.
Second video is a longer clip of Dave Foley talking about it w/ Rogan.

Out of 2 years this guy "literally" spent over a quarter of it in court.
Holy fuck.

I understand that there are real financial incentives to the state to keep the cash cow going and that it's a generally corrupt and unjust system, but that doesn't mean every judge will take it to the max on every father. This is an incredibly egregious abuse of judicial authority even by the already egregious standards of family law. I have to imagine even most family law judges would find what this judge did outrageous. Maybe I'm being naive about that though.

This man understand the system completely ^

signed: been there - done that