He’s not just a deadbeat son, he’s also a deadbeat dad.
Michael Rotondo — the 30-year-old upstate man whose own
parents sued him to get him out of the house —
complained he was too broke to pay child support for his 8-year-old son, yet somehow managed to plunk down nearly $10,000 for a storage unit that has housed his busted 1989 Chevy Camaro for the past five years, according to court records obtained by The Post.
Rotondo fought the mother of his child tooth and nail in Onondaga County Family Court in 2016 when she asked for an increase in support — from a mere $25 a month.
“He terrorized me,” the 33-year-old woman railed to The Post Friday, hours after the unemployed
Rotondo was kicked out of his parents’ Camillus home by court order following eight years of rent-free living.
The single mom, who asked to remain anonymous, said Rotondo owes about $2,500 in child support. He was ordered to pay $56 a week last year by a judge after the mom filed a petition in October 2016, court papers show.
Rotondo lost joint custody of the boy in September, but not before filing three motions to dismiss his baby mama’s bid for more child support.
Judge Julie Cecile sided with the mom and upped the support, while ripping Rotondo’s efforts to get a job as “minimal at best.”
A June 2017 filing shows how Rotondo cried poor while paying $920 a year in car insurance for the broken-down white Camaro with flat tires as well as a gray Volkswagen Passat station wagon that didn’t run, either.
He has kept the Camaro and other belongings, such as sporting and gaming equipment, at the $162-per-month storage unit in Camillus for the last several years.
The judge said the expenses “completely undermined” Rotondo’s claim that he can’t afford to pay child support.
“When questioned why he did not sell such belongings, he claimed that they had no value except sentimental, and that he had no legitimate answer for the obvious question of why it made sense to spend more than $9,000 over the last five years to store valueless belongings, at the same time asserting that he could not afford to pay support for his son,” Cecile wrote in her Sept. 26, 2017, ruling to hike the child support.
Testifying in the custody case, Rotondo said he applied to only two jobs that year and shunned working in retail or fast food because “he did not want to accept a position he did not think he could work at for at least three years,” Cecile wrote in the ruling.
He “considered applying at Staples but does not think it is a good environment,” she said.
Rotondo flouted a court order in March 2017 to produce records of his job search, claiming it “slipped his mind,” and also passed on attending a “parent-support program,” which would have aided his job search, because he thought it wouldn’t “help” his case, Cecile wrote.
Rotondo did all this while living under his parents’ roof.
Court records show Rotondo last worked in March 2017 as a part-time ski instructor, earning $9.70 an hour for 15 hours a week.
In 2015, he was fired from his job at Best Buy, which he’s currently suing for discrimination.
Rotondo gained national attention last month after he was sued by his parents for refusing to move out of their home. They won an eviction order.
“When questioned why he did not sell such belongings, he claimed that they had no value except sentimental, and that he had no legitimate answer for the obvious question of why it made sense to spend more than $9,000 over the last five years to store valueless belongings, at the same time asserting that he could not afford to pay support for his son,” Cecile wrote in her Sept. 26, 2017, ruling to hike the child support.
Testifying in the custody case, Rotondo said he applied to only two jobs that year and shunned working in retail or fast food because “he did not want to accept a position he did not think he could work at for at least three years,” Cecile wrote in the ruling.
He “considered applying at Staples but does not think it is a good environment,” she said.
Rotondo flouted a court order in March 2017 to produce records of his job search, claiming it “slipped his mind,” and also passed on attending a “parent-support program,” which would have aided his job search, because he thought it wouldn’t “help” his case, Cecile wrote.
Rotondo did all this while living under his parents’ roof.
Court records show Rotondo last worked in March 2017 as a part-time ski instructor, earning $9.70 an hour for 15 hours a week.
In 2015, he was fired from his job at Best Buy, which he’s currently suing for discrimination.
Rotondo gained national attention last month after he was sued by his parents for refusing to move out of their home. They won an eviction order.
He said the bad blood between him and his parents stems from his opposition to their seeking visitation rights with their grandson.
