(a) No person shall abandon or fail to provide adequate support to:
(1) The person's spouse, as required by law;
(2) The person's child who is under age eighteen, or mentally or physically handicapped child who is under age twenty-one;
(3) The person's aged or infirm parent or adoptive parent, who from lack of ability and means is unable to provide adequately for the parent's own support.
(b) No person shall abandon, or fail to provide support as established by a court order to, another person whom, by court order or decree, the person is legally obligated to support.
(c) No person shall aid, abet, induce, cause, encourage or contribute to a child or a ward of the Juvenile Court becoming a dependent child, as defined in Ohio R.C. 2151.04, or a neglected child, as defined in Ohio R.C. 2151.03.
(d) It is an affirmative defense to a charge of failure to provide adequate support under subsection (a) hereof or a charge of failure to provide support established by a court order under subsection (b) hereof, that the accused was unable to provide adequate support or the established support, but did provide the support that was within the accused's ability and means.
(e) It is an affirmative defense to a charge under paragraph (a)(3) hereof that the parent abandoned the accused or failed to support the accused as required by law, while the accused was under age eighteen or was mentally or physically handicapped and under age twenty-one.
(f) It is not a defense to a charge under subsection (b) hereof that the person whom a court has ordered the accused to support is being adequately supported by someone other than the accused.
(g) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, whoever violates subsection (a) or (b) hereof is guilty of nonsupport of dependents, a misdemeanor of the first degree, and shall be subject to the penalty provided in Section 698.02, provided the offender has not previously been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a violation of paragraph (a)(2) or subsection (b) hereof and provided the offender has not failed to provide support under paragraph (a)(2) or subsection (b) hereof for a total accumulated period of twenty-six weeks out of 104 consecutive weeks, whether or not the twenty-six weeks were consecutive. If the offender is guilty of nonsupport of dependents by reason of failing to provide support to the offender's child, as required by a child support order issued on or after April 15, 1985, pursuant to Ohio R.C. 2151.23, 2151.231, 2151.232, 3105.21, 3109.05, 3111.13, 3113.04, 3113.31 or 3115.31, the court, in addition to any other sentence imposed, shall assess all court costs arising out of the charge against the person and require the person to pay any reasonable attorney's fees of any adverse party other than the State, as determined by the court, that arose in relation to the charge.
(h) Whoever violates subsection (c) hereof is guilty of contributing to the nonsupport of dependents, a misdemeanor of the first degree, and shall be subject to the penalty provided in Section 698.02. A separate offense shall be deemed committed each day during or on which a violation occurs or continues.
(ORC 2919.21)