Herenton's Child Support Settlement

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The relationship was a May to December romance which unexpectedly produced a child out of wedlock.

Five years later with their romance long since wilted former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton and his once-love Claudine Marsh share only one thing- a tug of war over who should pay for the living product of an ill-fated alliance.

Once they were lovers. Then they became parents but, whatever relationship former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton and Claudine Marsh, the mother of his five year old son Michael, might have had is now strained through the sieve of adversarial rhetoric from their juvenile court attorneys, Patricia Woods and Mitchell Moskovitz.

"He adhered to every requirement that the court obligated him to meet and required him to meet," said Moskovitz.

"He decided that he was going to pay no more, no less than the state required him to pay. Regardless of the fact that he pays his adult daughters mortgage which is more money than what he was paying Michael," said Woods.

In the aftermath of a three hour Shelby County Juvenile Court hearing about child support for their son on Tuesday, in which Herenton and Marsh both testified, neither Woods or Moskovitz were available to appear on camera Wednesday.

But, they did answer a few pertinent questions about the proceedings in separate phone interviews.

So, is it true that Court Magistrate Sheldon McCall reduced Herenton's monthly child support payment in half? Woods maintained that while the judge wanted to keep it the same, a changed state law in regards to how social security benefits are applied to child support favored a reduction.

"As his dependent child, Michael was entitled a payment based on Dr. Herenton's social security. At that time that payment was not considered to be child support," said Woods. "Those payments have to be credited to the parent on whose account they're drawn- meaning Dr. Herenton gets a $968 credit toward his child support payment."

Woods said that credit is retroactive to September 2009, meaning Herenton is owed the money. But, Woods and Moskovitz seem to agree it doesn't mean Marsh has to personally write Herenton a check out for thousands in back payments.

"There's a credit that the court decided Mr. Herenton should receive and the specifics of how the credit will be achieved, either by reducing the monthly amount over a period of time or the specifics of that haven't been addressed. But, he is entitled to a credit for overpayment for a period of months," said Moskovitz.

At this time no other child support hearings regarding Michael Herenton are scheduled.