NEW YORK (CNN) — The winner of the $338 million Powerball jackpot paid $30,000 in back child support to the mother of three of his children Monday and had the warrant cleared during a hearing in family court.
The payment clears Pedro Quezada’s record, probation officials said during the hearing in Paterson.
The warrant for Quezada was originally issued in 2009. He owed a total of $29,000 in child support, according to William Maer of the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office. Quezada has five children, ages 5 to 23. It is not clear which children are covered by the payments.
Quezada told Family Court Judge Ernest Caposela that the children will now live with him.
The judge warned Quezada that he’ll be approached with a lot of investment offers, but the best investment would be in his children.
“This is now behind him, and his children are with him,” said Paul Fernandez, Quezada’s attorney, while leaving the courthouse Monday. “He plans to do what’s conservative and what’s right for his family.”
Every person who wins more than $600 in the lottery is checked for outstanding taxes, liens, child support payments and the like, according to Judith Drucker, public relations manager for the New Jersey Lottery. The funds owed are taken out of the final payment from the lottery winner, she added.
Quezada has chosen a cash payment of his lottery prize that will amount to approximately $152 million after taxes. The $30,000 for the child support was taken from this sum.
