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CB Deadbeat Parents Review of Roscoe Tanner
Roscoe Tanner

Roscoe Tanner review: Child support absconder 6

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12:00 am EDT
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I am a fugitive recovery agent, and was hired to locate a fugitive named Roscoe Tanner who had been ordered by the Dade County, Georgia courts to pay child support for his two children. The Dade County sheriff had been unable to locate this absconder for several years.

I found Tanner living in an exclusive resort in Florida, but could not serve process or warrants on him there because the resort security would tip him off, so I tracked him to Atlanta where he was appearing in a celebrity tennis match.

With the assistance of the Atlanta police, I served my process on him, and he was arrested for contempt of court and failure to pay child support.

A few years later I got another request to find him for service of two more warrants, this time from the Orange County, California district attorney's office.

During my attempts to locate him, I found out that since the last time I had encountered him he had committed two felonies (worthless check in excess of $20,000 and grand theft over $20,000) in Florida, and had skipped the state of Florida to evade arrest and hidden out in Germany, where another fugitive recovery agent located him and brought about his arrest by Interpol. He was extradited to Florida, pled guilty to both charges, and agreed to serve 12 years probation in lieu of a prison sentence.

He immediately violated probation, and skipped to California, where he was arrested on contempt of court and failure to pay child support charges in a New Jersey case.

When he got out, he skipped California, and that is when the Orange County authorities called me. Apparently, they knew that I had found him once before, and they had heard he might be headed my way again.

I located Tanner in Chattanooga, TN working as a tennis clinic instructor, and notified the authorities, but he was tipped off again, and fled. I tracked him through several states where friends hid him out in their condos and resorts, and when I got too close for comfort he again hid out in Europe (England and Germany), until Interpol again came around looking for him. He left Europe and hid out in Knoxville, TN working at an exclusive club operated by friends.

Before long, I called the fugitive squad and he was arrested on both the California warrants, as well as on a Florida fugitive warrant for violation of probation there (he had not complied with the terms of his probation), and he received a two year prison sentence, and served one year (after getting credit for "good behavior"), and was extradited earlier this year back to California, where he received a 45 day sentence on the contempt and child support charges. (He owes hundreds of thousands of dollars.)

Now he is back on the street, and is telling friends he will be going to England to donate time teaching tennis clinics again instead of working. His friends pay him under the table in cash and hide him out from the law.

I am asking anyone who spots Roscoe Tanner outside the state of California to check with their local police dispatcher to see if he is a fugitive again, since that is what he has become every time he is released from prison or jail on his promise to pay the court ordered child support he owes. His full name is Leonard Roscoe Tanner, and he is a white male about age 53.

He has been a fugitive from New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, or California eight of the last nine years, and it will be no surprise if he flees again. Law enforcement does not have the time or the money or the skilled personnel necessary to track multi-millionaire fugitives with thousands of friends willing to hide him out in exchange for a few tennis lessons for a has-been. Therefore, it is necessary for honest, law-abiding citizens who care about the welfare of children of deadbeat dads assist the authorities in keeping tabs Runnin' Roscoe.

6 comments
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Jane Tallent
Sep 18, 2007 8:00 pm EDT

Maybe you could help me get my ex-husband. He owes over 130,000 in child support. He skipped from Florida to New York to Wyoming and is now in California. Florida has done nothing to locate him. He recently inherited 78,000 which I will never see.

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Ted
Oct 18, 2007 5:15 pm EDT

What does tanner look like now? Short hair or on the long side? What color is his hair now? Glasses? How tall is he? how does he dress? Has he paid some child support? Is he living in California? We would like to help. Give us more details to work with.

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Gary Smithson
Apr 14, 2008 12:57 am EDT

I'm surprised so much timeis being wasted on this guy. So he bounced a large check on some rich geezer who owned a yacht, also alimoney is a plot by women to get more money out of men.Leave Roscoe alone! He was a great tennis player and as far as I know has never killed antyone, or assaulted anyone or sexually molested anyone- those are the ones the cops should be trying to catch- you are a nosey investigator who ought to get a proper job and stop hounding people.

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Mark Regan
May 24, 2008 7:53 pm EDT

1. Jane: I'm sorry, but I am now retired and do not have a public practice. Any competent Private Investigator or Attorney who uses Accurint.com should be able to locate your ex-husband.

2. Ted: Roscoe Tanner's most recent picture that I know about was listed on the Florida Dept of Corrections website. Search by his name.

3. Gary: Sounds like you need a reality check. Maybe you should give him your $35, 000 boat in exchange for a worthless piece of paper. By the way, he's still doing the same thing: On May 18, 2008, Roscoe Tanner was arrested again in Knox County, Tennessee for writing a worthless check in the amount of $72, 000 for two luxury sports utility vehicles. Maybe you'd like to pay that amount on his behalf to his latest victim, Gary, since you like his tennis skills so much. Or maybe you could reimburse the $100, 000 he scammed from Bjorn Borg right before he filed bankruptcy to that and his other "debts" would be discharged.

By the way, Roscoe COULD (if he were actually honest) PAY BACK HIS VICTIMS and SUPPORT HIS CHILDREN out of the $2.5 million trust fund he inherited from his WEALTHY father. But don't expect payment of his legitimate, court ordered judgments anytime soon. That is simply not Roscoe's nature. He's too busy putting on "celebrity" tennis clinics around the world and bragging to community groups how he is "donating" his time to "underprivileged kids", when the truth is Roscoe won't even pay court ordered child support to his OWN kids.

Maybe you think it is funny that a multimillionaire tennis player (who earned $2 million in his career, inherited $2.5 million from his dad, and begged, borrowed, and stole countless hundreds of thousands of dollars from innocent victims) doesn't have to buy his kids a pair of tennis shoes or a tennis racket, simply because he didn't sexually assault someone.

OJ and Michael Jackson had folks on their juries that were enamored by celebrities just like you are. I guess great tennis players, and football players and singers simply get a free pass from folks like you.

As for me, I had a "proper job" bringing absconders to justice, and I'm proud of it. I also donated many hours of my time to locating fugitives (like Roscoe) for free, contributed countless hours of service to the Red Cross and other charitable organizations, and although I was a single parent of three children (awarded by the court) never pursued their mother for the 18 years of child support she owed me for each of my three kids I supported on my own from locating skips.

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Belinda Miller
May 29, 2008 8:13 am EDT

Roscoe Tanner is in a Knoxville County jail in Tennessee. He has been arrained on felony theft charges. He wrote a bad check to a Knoxville Toyota Dealership for two Toyota SUV's over $72, 000.00.
I can not understand why deadbeat dads will not take care of their child or children but will write a bad check and run themselves into bankruptcy living the high life and directly neglect their children! The family and friends that support these people are just as wicked and sick. What about the children that deserve a life as well! It is our resposibility as parents to support them and nurture their lives! I wish something could be done about this continuously growing epidemic. Better yet, men that neglect their own child or children and take care of their new wife's children. Drop their own child and get new ones. That is sick but beleive me I know all about it!
Listen up, this is an issue that is becoming a problem to all of us! Everyone should pay their child support even tennis pros, and the "better than everyone else" high society!

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tennisfan
Henderson, US
Feb 19, 2011 7:41 am EST

Is Roscoe Tanner still wanted in Florida or has he served his time? I was recently at a tennis club there and saw him giving lessons and wondered if he is still a fugitive. I read about his non-payment of child support as well as his writing bad checks and was disgusted. Please respond if you know anything about his current situation as of February 2011.