Houston man caught up in unusual child support case turns himself in

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Houston father is headed to jail after a dispute over his child support payments.

The man paid his child support but because of a clerical error, his payments never made it to the child's mother. He was found in contempt of court and sentenced to jail.

Clifford Hall said "This is awful," said Clifford Hall as he walked into court this morning.

He says he only did what he had to do.

Hall turned himself in, but before he was led away in handcuffs, his attorneys tried one last time to ask the judge to suspend his sentence. That request was denied

Hall will serve a six-month jail sentence.

Hall is tangled up in a complicated child-support dispute after his employer acknowledged

a clerical error that prevented his payments from being sent to his 12-year-old son's mother. When Hall discovered the error, he paid in full, plus his attorneys say he paid an additional $1,000.

Still, under a new Texas law, it is up to family court judges to decide whether or not to jail delinquent child-support payers even if they are caught up by their hearing date.

Judge Lisa Millard sentence hall to six months in jail and all appeals were lost.

"It's a horrible feeling," said Hall. "It makes me sick to my stomach, but I had to do it."

"I want to encourage people not to pick a side," said appeals attorney Tyesha Elam. "Don't determine, well, he must be a dead beat. Mr. Hall is one of the first casualties of the change in the law."

Hall's attorney says their next step for them is fighting to change the new law that sent Hall to jail.

Hall says he plans to fight for full custody of his son.