Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. should pay $1,267 a month in child support to the mother of his 12-year-old son, according to the recommendation in a report filed last Friday by a domestic-relations hearing officer.
Anisa Denise Griego-Quintana is seeking court-ordered child support from Block for the first time. The report says he has been paying Griego-Quintana an undisclosed amount for the support of the boy and is not behind on his payments.
Block, 32, also has a 6-year-old son with Kimberly C. Gonzales, to whom he is legally obligated to pay $400 a month.
According to a report by Margaret Kegel, Block's 12-year-old child will begin attending a private school in August, but he and Griego-Quintana "are not sure" whether the $7,325 annual tuition should be included in the child support calculation.
Kegel, whose report goes to state District Judge Raymond Ortiz, calculated Block's support payment based on his monthly income of $7,500 as an elected official and Griego-Quintana's $3,872 monthly income as an employee of the state Children, Youth and Families Department.
Griego-Quintana, 31, who lives in Santa Fe and is married, filed an "affidavit of indigency" in the case to avoid legal fees. In it she said she spends $1,650 a month on basic living expenses. Neither she nor Block were represented by lawyers in the hearing before Kegel last week.
Block, 32, said in an e-mail that he has "shared custody" of both his children. In her March 10 application for court-ordered child support, Griego-Quintana wrote that she and Block should have "joint legal custody." Kegel's report does not address custody, but says the 12-year-old boy "resides primarily" with the mother and is with the father every other weekend and one day during the intervening week.
"As far as I'm concerned is I have my kids often and I don't need to explain further to satisfy you," Block wrote.
Gonzales, 28, first sought court-ordered child support from Block in 2005 when her child was 2. She was then living in Pecos and working as a financial-aid officer at Santa Fe Community College, according to her affidavit of indigency.
Gonzales wrote that Block had been paying child support plus medical insurance for the child, and did not owe her money. But she sought sole legal custody because "my child needs consistency and stability, and this (joint custody) would be interruptive and affect developmental process," she wrote.
The court record indicates Block missed several hearings in the case. State District Judge Barbara Vigil determined that Block should pay $495 a month, then lowered that to $400 "due to other equities received."
In 2006, lawyer Kathleen Kinzer-Ellington sought to lower the payment by 20 percent because of changes in Block's income. But Kinzer-Ellington withdrew as Block's attorney one day before a hearing on the modification. In 2007, Ortiz closed the case because of a lack of activity, effectively leaving the court-ordered child support at $400 a month.
Block and Gonzales took out a marriage license in 2002, but it was never returned to the Santa Fe County Clerk's Office. He married Stephanie Maestas in 2007.
In 2008, Block defeated five other Democrats in the primary and faced no Republican opposition in the general election to win the PRC seat representing Santa Fe and surrounding counties that his father, Jerome Block Sr., previously held. The five-member PRC regulates utilities, insurance and other industries in New Mexico.
The two Blocks are charged with embezzlement, election-code violations and other crimes related to fund raising during the 2008 campaign.
Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.
