PATERSON, N.J. — Authorities say a New Jersey man who won the $338 million Powerball jackpot on Monday is subject to potential arrest for owing about $29,000 in child support.
Pedro Quezada, 44, claimed a lump-sum payment worth $221 million, or about $152 million after taxes, the fourth-largest jackpot in Powerball history. He said Tuesday that he hasn't made up his mind on what to do with the money, but he could use a good car and give back to his community and "help those in need."
(See N.J. man claims $338 million Powerball jackpot, Lottery Post, Mar. 26, 2013.)
But authorities said Quezada owed child support payments that go back to 2009. It's not known which of Quezada's five children, who range in age from 5 to 23 years old, are covered under the payments.
A spokesman for Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik said the sheriff's office's warrant squad is attempting to find Quezada to resolve the matter.
Spokesman Bill Maer also said the state Lottery Division generally satisfies such judgments before winnings are released. He added that Quezada is subject to potential arrest like everyone else until the warrant is satisfied.
Quezada lived in the United States for 26 years since his family moved in the 1980s from the Dominican city of Jarabacoa, CBS New York reports. Neighbors said the Quezada family suffered bad luck in recent years. Thieves broke into their apartment in 2011 and a fire almost destroyed their bodega in 2009.
Thanks to GAMBLIN QUEEN for the tip.
I Think he can afford the payments now, but how will they find him? He probably is hiding untill all the hype dies out
here we go
Just the beginning with this guy, you can just see he is not too bright. Christ he must have had about 20 people with him when he did the press conference. If this guy has $10 to his name in 5 years I will be shocked.
Well he did say " l want to take care of my family"- maybe his factoring in his deadbeat dad status knowing it needs to be upgraded.
Wouldn't supprise me if Pedro goes broke within 5 years.
i don't know if he is a deadbeat dad but what else would you call someone who owes $29,000 in back child support and still had enough cash to buy liquor and lottery tickets?
Looks like Pedro will need to get paid again.
Alimony, alimony
I thought I bought steak
But it was all baloney
Me oh my, oh goodness sake
I'm payin' for my mistake...
-Bobby Bare
Will he still be arrested after the lottery satisfies the judgment or after he himself pays it off plus all the fines?
that's cute
i'm just glad he can now pay all his dues to the mother & children
that way everyones Happy Happy
Good. I hope he pays more than the $29k for all those kids he's left scattered around. Sheesh.
Btw, what the heck is a bodega? I did google it. I live in the Houston area. We are fairly diverse here. Is a bodega the yankee hispanic version of the Pakistani mini-marts? Do the Pakistani get to have their own special name for their mini-marts? Pakidega? "Pock-ee-dega" as some might pronounce? If an Italian owns a mini-mart, is it called a bodego?
Kids cost a lot to have and I know because my sister has four and they always need things. I am just glad I never had any so I don't owe child support too. I bet the mother of those kids will ask for more money from pedro now that he is rich and he will be broke in five years if he doesn't watch it.-weshar75
Hey buylow, what does the photo mean?
It means grab a seat and the popcorn, this dude PEdro and his life is getting quite interesting/entertaining.
One Man two faces
Not only does he have to pay that $30,000 back, his kids mother will milk this guy for $5,000+ a week.
How does he want to buy a "good car"? In New York, if you owe child support, they remove your driving privileges and take your drivers license. I'm sure the same applies in New Jersey?
Anyways, it may seem that he's going back to the D.R. and enjoy the rest of his wealth there. My sisters dad says this all the time if he were to win huge amounts of money (buy a mansion in DR).
D.R. isn't that safe though for wealthy folks. They burglarize and kill for the money.
I'm not sure why this should be a problem for him now. $29,000 is chump change to him now.
But one thing I am sure of - I needed that good reminder of why I should NEVER be a father.
Oh yeah, this show is going to be good.
I predict he will be found dead in a penthouse suite in Vegas with about a kilo of coke on the table, killed by some stripper he was in love with and her boyfriend who run off with suitcase of cash with about $3 million in it.
My neighbor in the NBA, his child support for 1 kid is about $25,000 a month and his contract is about $100 million so this guy's child support from now on should be pretty epic. I assume the children's mothers will push for a nice chunk of change to be put away in trusts before he can blow it all too.
there's probably interest with that back child support, i'm sure we will be hearing more about this soon..kinda funny how happy we all was for him 2 days ago now look.
bad pedro
To be honest, I didn't like him from the start. Congrats on winning and I don't wanna sound like a jealous hater, but that money should've went to someone else. Personally me, or someone smart enough to make the money worth it. Pedro is a bodega owner I believe. Bodega owners are okay with money and whatnot, but something don't seem right about Pedro.
I dislike him for owing that money and not being a father. He probably neglected those kids. It's not right. With the good comes the bad, they say.
yes they do, food, doctors bills, toys, clothes, then phones, cars then if they choose to go to college he better be thinking about all that money it will be gone fast with 5 kids.
he will probably leave USA
bodega owner
what is that mean?
A grocery/deli owner. Basically a guy/girl who owns a grocery store.
Bodega is grocery store in Spanish. It's an East Coast thing. ;)
oh i see
maybe this is the family he was talking about the kids he left behind hope theres not more.
Pedro Quezada, 44, told NorthJersey that he wanted to use the money to help his family.
His current family I'm pretty sure. Not the neglected kids. The kids he owe child support too... Well unfortunately Pedro didn't consider those kids family. This is why he's in this predicament now - in trouble owing $29,000
well Lady luck is a blind archer, much like love. she shoots into a crowd of several 100 million ticket holders, and then grabs the pocorn. He derserves the money as much as any other ticket holder. Can he keep it without ruining his and those around him? its upto them.
Very nicely said. Fair and true. I agree. Hope the best.
Good point.
I agree that buying liquor and lottery tickets has a far much lower priority than support of the growing child whose growth and development ca not wait and should not be put on hold.
It appears that Pedro's past experience with taking care of his own family may be in-adequate to support his public altruistic declarations, comments and assurances that he will take care of his family, and the community with his $152M net winnings.
But again, nothing is impossible and if the murderer on the way to Damascus could be turned around from Saul of Tarsus to St Paul, Pedro too can be turned around to join the club of champions of the child.
From Google the answer is:
"bo·de·ga
He did say he would take care of his family, and i'm sure he meant his kids. Probably they reason he played lotto. Just because he could'nt pay, does'nt mean he was a total deadbeat. The dominicans i work with do their best with the little they have.
Drama
The Lord works in mysterious ways, changed my mind about this guy, Your human garbage if you don't make sure your kids are taken care of first, in this country for 26 years and can hardly speak english. speaks volumes.
It's ridiculous how he's so quickly judged.
They build you up to tear you.down but guess what he doesn't have any worries.
Ha.The debt of course will be settled to the state anyway before he even
receives the $152 million. It really wasn't anyones business.
I'm sure he would've paid that off first before anything.
Hate that the media digs and digs until they find something just to drag someone down.
Pedro is mega rich now, he's NOT even worried.
He was blessed for a reason.
I guess other States haven't adopted the same claiming rules as Maryland has. If you win anything over $600.00 and try to claim it at one of the two central claiming centers, back taxes, unpaid child support, alimony or any other debts claimed by the State, are paid out before the winner can get his or her win.
This rule has broken a many winners hearts when they have left the claiming office with "NOTHING".
Oklahoma the same way they check everything
Well, hopefully the NJ Lottery Headquarter's office is going to honor the 'Back Child Support Payments Withdrawal' if Pedro's County Police Dept. has contacted the NJ Lottery Headquarters to request such withdrawal. This Easter Break weekend article doesn't indicate such though.
Regardless, Pedro has probably been seeing a lawyer to discuss this either directly before, or after, this "back child support" news hit the press two days ago.
Consequently, I don't know how making such a paltry, $29K+, child support back payments withdrawal, from Pedro's $152M lump-sum Gross Remainder before NJ Lottery Headquarters cutting the final check, would break Pedro's heart. He's now a lucky guy, soon with lots of money, it is possible that his new monthly child(ren) support payments won't be increased more than 100% if he hires a talented lawyer.
Pedro still has a easy lifestyle to look forward to. For example, if he moves some of his family to a big luxury house in the low mountains in Cuenca, Ecuador, his family would live very comfortably, and even have daily medium-level reliability household Internet use.
Its hard to judge with so little information. Lots of people who don't even have a car cant pay support.
Losing his licence for not paying child support only guaranteed that he would stay on welfare.
Ohio has similar rules for lottery winners and unpaid child support, taxes and etc. but I'm not sure they do any checking beyond asking the winners. When I collected my $1500 prize last month I had to sign a statement that I didn't have any such outstanding obligations.
That doesn't matter when he goes to the lottery commission headquarters to claim his prize they'll take what he owes.
Right, people forget that the "news" these day is nothing more than a (for profit) TV show.
I never make jusdgement about anyone and their business. Just because a person (man or woman) owes back child-support, does NOT automatically make them a deadbeat.
Having said that, I'm sure whatever back $$$ he owes will be deducted form the payout. Even further, the mother said child(ren) has probably already lawyered-up to make sure she gets her slice of the pie.
With $152m on the way, there's no reason for the guy not to make good on past child-support and also setup Trusts for each one. At the end of the day, everyone SHOULD come out winners in this. Unless this dude totally screws this up, he and his family should be living happily-ever-after.
This is another reason why I'm sooooooooo glad I was smart enough to not plant seeds all over the place. I have male and female family members and friends that catch hell from baby-mama/daddy nonsense. When I win the big one, me, my wife, and our 2 kids are going to have a blast.
It does not matter what you ALL loosers think about him, in the eyes of GOD he was the chosen one and I'm happy with GOD'S choice!!
I'm sure we will read about that soon enough just like Jack W. sometimes some people carry the curse of the lottery with the winning they go hand in hand kinda like yellow and red makes Orange
I think this guy is BETTER, by looking at his smile.
hi Ronnie, i thought you were still n morning guess that cleansing helps
This is the "after" photo
Here they are together..................
i thought he was a businessman even before the win, i hope he didn't lose that to
I gave it the classiest cleansing ever........................
looks like he lost his HAT
No Hat 
Good Luck i know it works
He lost a lot more than his hat.......
Most people would still be set for life with only the $900,000.
and so will pedro if he is not super careful!
now you see it now you don't magically disappear ^^^^^-----------------------
IMA B D Big jackpot winner.
you are a winner
Good idea. Ima do it now.
It must take a special skill to waste $315 million.
Wow!! you sure love buying lottery tickets! is this just for one draw?
Most of those were left over from a wheel I played on MM Tue night. lol.
Actually his cash payout after taxes was around $115 million and he likely owed more when he filed his taxes the following year. His true net was in the neighborhood of $90 million.
He may be wealthy but suffers greatly when it comes to handling his assets.
I sure hope you had some winners.
This is the wheel played and hit 3 of 5. I only played the first 80 lines because I got tired of filling the slips.
Wheel: Pick 5 Abbreviated 3 if 5 of 31
Tickets: 125
Description: Minimum 3-number match, if 5 numbers drawn fall within your set of 31 numbers.
Input: 39, 20, 44, 14, 3, 41, 15, 4, 19, 46, 56, 51, 42, 12, 27, 49, 7, 37, 6, 21, 17, 11, 30, 8, 24, 22, 43, 1, 34, 13, 9
35. 07-11-14-20-37
36. 04-11-20-46-49
37. 04-07-17-20-24
38. 04-20-21-22-37
39. 20-27-37-46-56
40. 20-21-24-43-46
41. 17-20-22-49-56
42. 01-07-20-21-56
43. 07-20-27-43-49
44. 11-17-20-21-27
45. 01-20-24-37-49
The comments being made about this man being a deadbeat is ludicrous. I'm not excusing any deadbeats that flat out refuse to pay or wait till they are forced by law to pay child support, but I believe his intentions to pay are different, especially since he stated he wanted his lottery win to take care of his family.
Did anyone stop think that maybe he had fallen behind and is in arrears with his child support due to the burglaries and the fire to his bodega? Maybe he's been making partial payments? The news NEVER print the whole truth and this is just another way to shame a large lottery winner and to give a bad name to MEN, esp..a man of color.
Either way, he can afford to pay off his $29,000, it's chumpchange for him! And the warrant for his arresst is just silly..LOL Arressting a father isn't going to help the child support situation. NO WONDER they say our jails are overpopulated and we arresst more people than any other country around the world.
If I were him I'd take my money back to the D.R. or a different country and let New Jersey and AMERICA report on that!
i already got it, but thanks
The Louisiana Lottery also deducts unpaid child support from lottery winnings. I'm not sure about back taxes or anything like that, but the website clearly states unpaid child support is deducted from winnings. I haven't checked if NJ does that too. For him now, $29,000 is pocket change. It wouldn't surprise me if they try to get an increase in support from him, and they'd probably get it.
he that is without sin cast the first stone;
the real fact is he was poor but very rich now.......
i don't know why that was even mention in the news or how they find it out, what they do go to the court house someone must have called in the tip
you are right he will have some money for a few minutes till it is all gone then he be back to square one hope he buys some new shoes
pedro if you are ever on the Lottery post reading this just wanted to say have FUN & spend wisely!
That is a good point. One example I can think of is a friend I'll call Eddie. Eddie was divorced, 2 children who lived with his ex-wife, and worked as a self employed plumber. He had issues paying sometimes just because of the nature of his work. One week, he might get a full 30-40 hours, next week he'd only get 5 hours so he'd sometimes pay what he could because the way the child support was ordered, he had to always pay like he got a full week in. He wasn't a deadbeat at all, he worked hard and tried to land the big jobs, like full remodels of homes or businesses, so he could make up what he missed out on.
Eddie eventually gave up on self employment and went to work for a friend of his who owned a Roto Rooter franchise. His friend had so much work he had to turn work away, so Eddie could get all the hours he wanted. The weird part about this is even though he was getting a full 40 hour week, sometimes more, and bringing in more money, he was actually able to get his child support order reduced. What happened was his hourly rate working for Roto Rooter was lower than it was when he was self employed, so it was seen as a reduction in income and since child support payments are based on income, he got is required payments reduced, and it was all legal.
I don't have kids all over the place either in fact, don't have any at all. If I hit a big one, it'll be just me and my wife celebrating and living a good life.
Back to court to figure out what the support goes to now.
Dead beat pc of s h i t ,cant pay dont play.
If u gonna poke the fire u better be prepared to take care of it.
the best line.."
He said Tuesday that he hasn't made up his mind on what to do with the money, but he could use a good car and give back to his community and "help those in need."
...I guess kids weren't a first priority
.... but then again this is the situation all around the country.
Cars,rims ,, and trendy clothing must come first...unreal the mentality of some folks
I was wondering the same thing. I have never heard of a "bodega" before, but it's in all the news stories about this Powerball winner. I saw on TV that the winner's son works there and uses the slicer to cut meats for the bodega.
Wrong, if you can afford booze and lottery, you can make sure your children have food, clothes, shoes, and make sure basic needs are met he didn't, Plain and simple.
He was buying booze and lottery.
Whats really sad , all the people here defending this low life, who couldn't man up and take care of his kids, I see these individuals must really happy to see kids suffer.
Jack is still a millionaire, he still has his businesses and didn't go broke. But he did lose his daughter, granddaughter and his wife left him. If he had a dog he/she's probably gone too, dunno if he had a pick-up.
Well, at least now he has more than enough money to support his children. He can even afford education plans for his children. For sure he could make use of his money to do a lot of good things.
I wonder if the Lord is in charge of who wins or is it just completely random. If he is, why would he award it to someone not taking care of his own kids? This guy is definitely not off to a good start.
Maybe this guy won so he can pay child support now. He has no more excuses like "I don't have the money." I'm not sure about the debate of randomness vs. divine intervention. I'd like to think prayer works but maybe not with the lottery. It's probably just dumb luck because all kinds of people win. It doesn't matter what race, age, or socioeconomic background you are, you could win if you buy a ticket. A saint or a sinner could win. If my dog could buy a ticket, he could win the lottery. But knowing how impulsive he is, he would blow the money!
Bad Dog - No Biscuit!
In the US, most dominicans advertise it as a deli, not bodega. Mostly hot food like beef,chicken, ox tail, rice & beans. Good stuff. Their Mamitas ice cream ices is the best.
lmao, thats funny
Lol good one
NJ had a guy sitting in jail over alimony + child support that exceeded his yearly income, so the whole "deadbeat dad" screed is overwrought.
The press never mentions what orifice these judges pull the numbers out of, and then demonize the men they screw over.
I agree, the system is broken, I just hate to see parents, who would rather take care of their selfish wants and needs, then kids suffer.
Amen sister
I agree with that prediction.
I hope the mothers push for and do get the $$$. As someone who is owed nearly 20K in child support and was a single mother for years, I know it is tough road to haul. I have had to pay medical expenses for an asthmatic child for 14 years and now he is braces for the second time around, all out of pocket as his father doesn't even give a hello or how do you do about the boy, bless his sweet heart. And yes I hope the mothers do blow a little on themselves, after they put away the majority of it in trust for the children. Whether or not you agree, I think they deserve a few pennies for raising they children that he obivously has not cared for.
Here in Ohio if you get more than 1000.00 behind you go to jail for 6 months........... He needs to sit in jail for up too 2 years
I don't know man, just calling the guy a "deadbeat" is a little much, I think.
There's a show called "Black Ink". The guy owns a small Tattoo Shop in NYC. Has a kid, and takes care of her.
He started making waves in the industry and appeared in a few magazines.
Then, the cameras, then the TV show. Kind of the same route as the O.C.C. guys.
The entire time he's busting his ass at his craft, he's taking care of his kid. No question.
Out of nowhere, the baby-mama, files papers in court saying the guy's not taking care of business.
This cat ends up in court facing jail time all because baby-mama wants to be greedy thinking the guy is making Mitt Romney money.
The kid was between 6 and 8 (I forget) but he could end up having to pay so-called "back" child-support ;
all because the TV cameras and magazine appearences.
That's why the system is screwed. Child support is for the CHILD; not for baby-mama to spend on herself.
I think when Pedro said he's going to take care of his family and help those in need;
it should be implied that his own <snip> kids are the "family" he speaks of. Duh...
Anyways, I wish the guy the best. Another reason that claiming annonymously should be -at least- an option.
If he is indeed taking care of his child, the mother won't have a leg to stand on.
Not necessarily. If he doesn't have receipts, cancelled checks, or any form of paper trail, he's at the mercy (or lack thereof) of the court.
well then I guess it sucks to be him. Should have had his ducks in a row.
"Poke the fire?"
Is that the same as "takin' the shrimpboat to tuna town?"
WHEN HE PAY THE M.O.N.E.Y. THE COURT SUPPOSE 2 LET HIM G.O. GO........
AN LIVE HIS LIFE !!!!!
SHE DIDNT HAVE 2 WORRY ABOUT COURT OR JAIL
LET THE MAN LIVE .....IF IT WAS U WHAT WOULD THEY SAY ABOUT YOU ??????
THEY PROBLY WAS WITH HIM THE HOLE TIME YOU DONT KNOW .....AN ITS HIS MONEY HE CAN SPEND IT HOW HE WANTS !!!!! SPEND IT PLAYER !!!!!!
....DRINK 1 4 M3 !!!!!
$$$$$$$$$$$$$ BIG SCOOB.....
Check your Caps Lock, scoobie.
I think it's stuck on.