Hall of Shame
Daniel Dennis Phillips, 54
Shawnee, Kansas
UPDATED - Newest information as of 4/1/06

January 17, 2006: Phillips failed in his latest effort to overturn the Washington Superior Court order of child support, and his petition for review of the earlier ruling from the Washington State Court of Appeals has been denied. In addition, Phillips is now representing himself in proceedings before the Washington and Kansas Courts, perhaps in the belief that he alone has the legal acumen to convince a court that he should not be held accountable for his actions. (For earlier updates, click here.)

True deadbeat parents are the exception; many fall behind in payments for economic reasons and find it hard to pay the accumulated arrearages, although they do try. The real deadbeats are those parents that are so lacking in moral fiber that their child's needs are of no consequence. This Hall of Shame parent is particularly egregious, and it took an arrest and conviction to get the guy to pay even a portion of his huge arrearages.

Daniel Dennis Phillips, a former lawyer-turned-shopkeeper currently living in Shawnee, Kansas, has been employed as an attorney at law firms such as Stinson, Mag & Fizzell; Husch, Eppenberger; and Lewis, Rice & Fingersh (all three are Missouri firms), and has in the past listed himself in the Martindale Legal Directory as Managing Director and General Counsel for Reconstituted Technologies, Inc., or RTI. (That business failed.)

Following his mother's death in 2004, Phillips received a substantial inheritance from her estate, which may have been the major source of funds for the eBay store (Vinyl Renaissance) which he currently operates with his fourth wife, Eva M. Jenkins or Eva M. Phillips. Apparently, the eBay business has trickled over into a new physical store, Vinyl Renaissance, which is located at 6471 Quivera in Shawnee, Kansas, and can also be found online as an entity separate from the eBay seller. Associated with Vinyl Renaissance is a second company, Daneva Classical (as in Dan and Eva, which is too cute for words), through which Phillips has and may continue to sell on eBay.

Following the receipt of his inheritance, he subsequently paid the federal restitution ordered in U.S. District Court under the terms of the plea agreement between Phillips and the US Attorney. This amount satisfied only a portion of the Washington child support judgment, but it did serve to end his federal criminal probation. Meanwhile, Phillips continues to owe over $36,000 in child support interest, medical support, and attorney fees, all stemming from the 1989 Kansas support order for the benefit of his son.

It is not the only debt Phillips has left unpaid, nor is it the only legal battle in which he has been engaged. Prior to 1980, he filed for bankruptcy after his Kansas City, Missouri landscaping business failed. A query of court records available online at Missouri's Office of the State Courts Administrator reveals several cases filed against Phillips: In 1990, he was sued by Commerce Bank in Kansas City for breach of contract. In 1996, he was sued by Paul C. Miller for breach of contract. In 1997 and 1999, he was sued by West Publishing Company for breach of contract. A search at Johnson County Kansas District Court Public Records shows Phillips and his current wife have been sued, both together and separately, in a number of civil cases. It appears that the husband and wife debtor duo have even been sued by their landlord in Knarr vs. Phillips, Case #02LA09048. Taken as a whole, this only further illustrates Phillips' habit of dodging debts. One could easily surmise it's simply a game to this deadbeat, since his name is so frequently identified as "defendant" in case after case after case. Perhaps when a reputation is so horribly tarnished, it doesn't bother an individual any longer. Only he could say with any certainty.

It's interesting to note that Phillips has stooped even lower in the past. In 1999, Phillips indulged in another little scam against his ex-wife: he contacted her with the promise that his long-standing child support arrearages would be paid and kept current by October 1999, if only she would loan him enough to pay rent for his home (shared with his girlfriend), his car payment, and other business and living expenses for the month of August. Having been assured that he would repay the loan within 60 days, his ex-wife naively wired $1500 to the Bank of America account of Eva M. Jenkins (Phillips claimed not to have his own checking account for this purpose). Phillips sent confirmation of the loan and confirmed his girlfriend had received the funds via wire transfer, but neither one has ever repaid it. By January of 2000, Phillips sent correspondence (via an attachment to an e-mail sent by Eva Jenkins from her TransAmerica workplace account) that again guaranteed repayment, but that promise was breached as well. By 2001, all attempts by his ex-wife to reach him by phone had been unsuccessful and it was evident that neither Phillips nor Jenkins had any intention of paying back the loan.

None of this should be surprising, given that Phillips initially failed to achieve a passing grade in his ethics course while in law school at UMKC (and then only barely passed on his second attempt), but his complete and utter disregard for the ultimate financial and emotional impact on his own son is nonetheless contemptible and shameful.

If you have information as to Phillips' assets or business dealings, please contact the Washington State Division of Child Support. The phone number is (206) 341-7000 or (800) 526-8658. You may also direct your communications to Levi Fisher at the Seattle Regional Office of the Administration for Children and Families - (206) 615-2519, or to the Johnson County Kansas District Court Trustee. The Trustee's office can be reached at (913) 715-3300. Any assistance you may provide in this matter will be very appreciated. You may also send tips via e-mail to this website.

PRIOR UPDATES

March 31, 2004: Phillips was sentenced in federal court to five years' probation for criminal nonsupport.

January, 2004: Phillips pleaded guilty to criminal nonsupport in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. Click here to read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's article about Phillips' arrest in Shawnee, Kansas, as part of a federal operation rounding up deadbeat parents.

January 22, 2004: Prior to his guilty plea, Phillips petitioned the Supreme Court of Missouri for reinstatement to the Missouri Bar. The petition is docketed on the Missouri Courts website under SC85784 - In Re: Daniel D. Phillips, Petitioner. The moral and ethical standards for practicing lawyers are rather stringent, which makes it seem unlikely that Phillips will be successful in his petition, considering that he has flouted lawful court orders and has, after all, been sentenced for his criminal behavior. Considering the timing of Phillips' petition, one wonders whether the criminal investigation and sentencing were disclosed to the Missouri Supreme Court.

September, 2003: Phillips was arrested by federal agents in Shawnee, Kansas, for criminal nonsupport.

August 25, 2003: Daniel Dennis Phillips was found in contempt by the King County Superior Court for failing to pay child support as required by a lawful Kansas child support order, and ordered to pay arrearages, medical costs, and attorney's fees in excess of $70,000.

Page updated on April 12, 2006

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