(a) No person shall abandon, or fail to provide adequate support to:
(1) His or her spouse, as required by law;
(2) His or her legitimate or illegitimate child who is under age eighteen (18), or mentally or physically handicapped child who is under age twenty- one (21);
(3) His or her aged or infirm parent or adoptive parent, who from lack of ability and means is unable to provide adequately for his or her own support;
(4) Any person whom, by law or by court order or decree, the offender is legally obligated to support.
(b) 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 RC 2151.04, or a neglected child, as defined in RC 2151.03.
(c) It is an affirmative defense to a charge under division (a) of this section of failure to provide adequate support that the accused was unable to provide adequate support, but did provide such support as was within his or her ability and means.
(d) It is an affirmative defense to a charge under division (a)(3) of this section that the parent abandoned the accused or failed to support the accused as required by law, while the accused was under age eighteen (18), or was mentally or physically handicapped and under age twenty-one (21).
(e) It is not a defense to a charge under division (a)(4) of this section that the person whom a court has ordered the accused to support is being adequately supported by someone other than the accused.
(RC 2919.21(F))
(f) Whoever violates division (a) of this section is guilty of nonsupport of dependents, a misdemeanor of the first degree unless the offender previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a violation of division (a)(2) of this section or there has been a court finding that the offender has failed to provide support under division (a)(2) or (a)(4) of this section for a total accumulated period of twenty-six (26) weeks out of one hundred four (104) consecutive weeks, whether or not the twenty-six weeks (26) were consecutive. If the offender is guilty of nonsupport of dependents by reason of failing to provide support to his or her child as required by a child support order issued on or after April 15, 1985, pursuant to RC 2151.23, 3105.21, 3109.05, 3111.13, 3113.04, 3113.31 or 3115.22, 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. Whoever violates division (b) of this section is guilty of contributing to the nonsupport of dependents, a misdemeanor of the first degree. Each day of violation of division (b) of this section is a separate offense.
(RC 2919.21; Ord. No. 1631-05. Passed 3-20-06, eff. 3-24-06)