Sparta, N.J. — Chrissy McMickle was 5 when her father began molesting her. Afterward, he would give her ice cream and warn her not to tell anyone. Michael McMickle was 5 when the sexual abuse began, 7 when the beatings started.
Michael eventually told a neighbor, and their father, Nelden McMickle, went to jail for more than eight years.
This year, the state moved Nelden McMickle to a psychiatric facility and said the children he abused would have to pay part of the $90,000 annual bill.
"Children are legally responsible for parents in state facilities," Sussex County adjuster Joanne Baker wrote in a Jan. 12 letter to Michael McMickle, now 21.
Michael was outraged. "Why should I have to pay for him?" he demanded.
The answer lies in an obscure 1918 state law meant to make relatives responsible for part of the cost of court-ordered hospital commitments.
A separate law passed in 1993 resulted in the elder McMickle being sent to the Ann Klein Forensic Center in Trenton after he finished his prison term last year. The law allows the state to commit sex offenders it deems to be still a threat to society after their prison terms are over.
The law that requires family members to help pay for court-ordered care doesn't make exceptions for cases in which children are victims of the relative's abuse.
Pam Ronan, spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, said Michael McMickle, who has worked as a mechanic and a house framer, didn't earn enough money to be required to contribute to his father's care. Eighteen-year-old Chrissy McMickle would not be charged until she finishes high school or college.
State officials have decided that if the siblings appeal the assessment, they will not be charged, Ronan said. But the law's existence still requires a letter to the family every year asking them to submit their tax returns to determine how much they might be liable for their father's care.
The siblings have hired a lawyer to lobby for a change in the 1918 law. Republican state Assemblywoman Rose Heck, who cosponsored the 1993 legislation that required McMickle to be committed, said she is working on a revision.
Whatever happens with the law, Michael McMickle is adamant that he won't contribute to his father's care.
"I'd rather go to jail than pay," he said.
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