Former New York mayoral candidate and radio host Curtis Sliwa owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid child support, according to a new lawsuit filed Saturday.
The suit, filed by Sliwa’s third wife Mary Paterson in New York Supreme Court and obtained by The Daily Beast, alleges that when the couple divorced in 2012, after 12 years of marriage, Sliwa agreed to pay $144,000 a year in child support to his ex-wife and son. But, Paterson says, between 2015 and 2023, Sliwa refused to pay the promised amount.
Now, she is suing Sliwa for more than $530,000 in unpaid child support.
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“Last fall, Curtis Sliwa unilaterally decided to reduce his bi-monthly child support payment by 23% for his son Anthony. Instead of reinstating the court-ordered amount, he tried to maintain the unauthorized reduction by making threats to expose my client and her husband with bad publicity,” Paul Siegert, a lawyer representing Paterson, told The Daily Beast, “Neither my client nor I have anything against Curtis but we will not tolerate his disregard for the legal process.”
Sliwa, who rose to prominence as the founder of the 1970s New York vigilante group The Guardian Angels, has made a living as a radio broadcaster since the 1990s.
It’s not the first time that Sliwa has been sued by his ex-wife. In 2013, Paterson filed a suit against Sliwa in Manhattan civil court, claiming he had been unfaithful to her since 2008. While married to Paterson, Sliwa had an affair with Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, the suit claims, fathering two children with her through IVF while still married to Paterson.
Paterson described Sliwa as an "an inveterate, world-class liar" in that suit, according to reporting from DNAInfo, and said he had swindled money more than half millions dollars from Paterson to build a “nest egg” for his children with Katz.
That year, Sliwa complained that he was unable to pay child support to Paterson and his son, because his WABC salary had been slashed from $688,000 to $120,000.
After Sliwa and Paterson divorced, he lived with Katz and their two children in Forest Hills. The two split-up in 2015. Sliwa married his fourth wife, Nancy Regula, in 2018.
Paterson meanwhile, is now married to former New York Governor David Paterson, who once co-hosted a radio show with Sliwa.
Sliwa did not return a request for comment on Saturday.
