Lucedale man arrested for failure to pay child support

This is a press release from Attorney General Jim Hood.

JACKSON, Miss. - Friday September 15, Attorney General Jim Hood announced the arrest of 45-year-old Ernest Wade Creech for failing to pay child support for nearly eight years.

Creech, of Lucedale, turned himself in to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office Thursday following an August indictment by a Greene County grand jury on one felony count of non-support of a child. The indictment states he willfully neglected or refused to provide for his child between October 2009 and August 2017 in the amount of $59,685.00. Creech’s arraignment is scheduled for September 28 at 1:00 p.m. Investigators Michael Stevens and Merritt Barry—both with the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Division—assisted in the arrest.

Creech faces up to five years in prison, full restitution, and a $500 fine. A charge is merely an accusation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case was investigated by the Attorney General’s Child Desertion Unit and will be prosecuted by Special Assistant Attorney General Kimberly T. Purdie, also of the Attorney General’s Child Desertion Unit.