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What brings absentee parents out of the woodwork? Promise of a dead child's money, it seems. Yesterday, the Daily News reported that Elsie Goss-Caldwell would be filing a petition to prevent her ex-husband from any money awarded after their son died on September 11. Goss-Caldwell says that her ex, Leon Caldwell, hadn't been in contact with their son for 28 years and doesn't deserve any of the money: "This is not about money, this is about respect for my son. How dare you try to profit from this? How dare you disrespect him?"
Kenneth Caldwell had been working at Alliance Consulting on the 102nd floor of the North Tower, and the Victims Compensation Fund gave Goss-Caldwell $2.9 million. Father Leon Caldwell, who the News says divorced Goss-Caldwell in 1979 and last saw her in 1984, reappeared in 2004, to collect $50,000 in workers comp from his son's death. Back then, an appeals court found that Leon Caldwell "met the legal definition of a parent" and was able to collect half, but had to use much of it to pay back Goss-Caldwell for child support.
Goss-Caldwell's current lawyer said, "This is a craven and disgraceful attempt to profit from the death of his son whom he abandoned at age 2." The $2.9 million has been in escrow, and the two parties will be meeting in Brooklyn court today.
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the whole "victims compensation" crap was absurd
no one should have received a penny from the govt
i feel bad for families of those who died on 9-10 or 9-12, as apparently their deaths dont mean shit
Ugh, after reading the first two guest comments, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and hide guest comments. Just sickening.
Apparently someone censored them already.
I wouldn't call it censoring - I'd call it moderating.
And this is a sad case, but I bet lots of fractured families have gone through similar fights.
"met the legal definition of a parent"
Anyone can become a parent; being a father goes beyond the biology.
this guy definitely gets the award for worst father of the decade.
and regarding gothamist's comment policy-- most of the time we'll just leave anonymous comments alone, and assume that people are hiding them if they don't like their tone. but once in awhile, the crazies really come out, and we've got to delete their insanity. so that's what happened here.
what a bastard. not the son that died, but the deadbeat dad.
I think this whole monetary compensation fund is a sad joke. A few months after 9/11, I was volunteering to notarize the compensation claims of so-called victims of 9/11. A sizable number of these claimants showed me questionable ID. There were a lot of Chinese (young, well-dressed) with California driver's licenses! Really. I had no idea that so many Chinese from California were impacted by 9/11. (sarcasm). There were also large numbers of hispanics from generally Central American countries who used outdated military cards as proof of their identities. (Okay, they may have been illegals--but with legitimate 9/11 hardship claims.)
When I voiced my some of my concerns to those in charge, I was told that these people were economically disadvantaged and really needed this money. At any rate, anyone that I wouldn't approve would just be passed along to another notary for approval.
None of the unfortunate victims of the Oklahoma bombing received any compensation whatsoever and this too was a terrorist act.
whether or not the monetary compensation is a joke or not, i think we can all agree that this deadbeat dad is pretty horrible.
I know the LMDC fund helped us A LOT. Sept 11 hit us hard since I work and live in the area. I was laid off 4 months after Sept 11 and was grateful for the funds. I didn't take advantage of everything available but should of, everyone else did, including the company I worked for.