Faizon Love, the 58-year-old actor best known for playing the Gimbel's Manager in Elf and Big Worm in Friday, was arrested in Florida and charged with two counts of contempt of court after allegedly failing to pay a quarter-million dollars in child support, and then skipping the hearing about it.
Love was booked into Hillsborough County Jail on June 16 and held without bond, Fox News reported, with the charges tied to an alleged offense date of May 15, 2026. The case is classified as a domestic relations matter linked to a child support dispute with his ex, Tiffany Lee.
Lee claims Love owes her $250,000 in arrears on $2,500 monthly payments. Love's response, laid out in court documents obtained by TMZ: he earned nothing in 2025 and says his highest gross income over the past five years was $13,000.
Love appeared before a Hillsborough County judge in a wheelchair and red prison jumpsuit, the New York Post reported. He had already spent 16 days in a California jail before being transported to Florida. His attorneys painted a picture of a man with no home, no income, and a 1999 car, someone who depends on friends for financial support.
Love's attorney told the court that the jail time was making it impossible for his client to dig himself out:
"The sentence is preventing him from working and ruining his name in Hollywood. So, if he is in jail, he can't work."
The judge released Love and gave him until July 1 to submit a financial statement proving his inability to pay.
Lee, for her part, was not buying it. She joined the proceedings by video call and offered a blunter account of Love's attitude toward his obligations:
"Specifically told me that I wasn't going to get a dime."
The contempt charges stem from two failures, as Breitbart News detailed. First, Love allegedly failed to pay the court-ordered child support. Second, he skipped an April hearing in the case. Love claimed a medical incident prevented him from appearing, though the nature of that incident and whether he provided documentation remain unclear.
A judge ordered Love in May to turn himself in and serve 90 days in jail. When he did not comply voluntarily, authorities arrested him in Tampa.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office released a mug shot showing Love in an orange jumpsuit. Love, who lists his residence as Glendale, California, was initially held at Orient Road Jail in Tampa.
Court documents paint a stark picture, or at least the picture Love wants the court to see. His claimed income of $0 over the last 12 months, and a five-year peak of just $13,000, would make a $250,000 arrearage impossible to satisfy. But those figures sit awkwardly beside a career that includes roles in major studio films like Elf, Couples Retreat, The Replacements, and Just My Luck, plus television work on Step Up: High Water and Big House.
Whether Love's finances genuinely collapsed that far, or whether he has income or assets the court has not yet seen, is precisely what the July 1 financial statement is supposed to resolve.
The child support arrest is not Love's first encounter with the justice system, not by a long stretch. Hollywood has produced no shortage of actors who end up in criminal court, and Love's rap sheet has been growing for years.
In 2017, Love was caught on camera assaulting a valet at John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Ohio. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor, was ordered to pay $500, and received a 180-day suspended jail sentence.
Then came August 2024. A California hotel clerk told authorities that Love hurled a credit card machine at her head and broke her glasses after she informed him that the room he had booked was unavailable. Love was accused of felony assault in early 2025 in connection with the incident.
A judge determined there was sufficient evidence to proceed, and a criminal trial was scheduled. The current status of that trial is not clear from available court records.
The accumulation matters. A single missed payment or a single bad day might earn sympathy. But when a man faces a felony assault charge in one state, contempt of court in another, and carries a prior assault conviction from a third, all while claiming he cannot scrape together a dime for his child, courts and the public tend to notice the pattern.
The July 1 deadline looms as the next turning point. Love must produce financial documentation that backs up his claim of destitution. If he can, the court may have to recalculate what he owes and what he can realistically pay. If he cannot, or does not show up, the 90-day jail sentence could snap back into effect.
Lee's accusation that Love told her directly she would not receive any money suggests this is not simply a case of a struggling man who fell behind. It suggests defiance. Courts treat those two things very differently.
The Los Angeles area has seen its share of high-profile arrests tied to financial misconduct, and while Love's case involves family court rather than federal fraud, the underlying question is the same: are the claimed numbers real?
Love's attorney argued that jailing his client only makes the problem worse, that a man behind bars cannot audition, cannot film, cannot earn. There is a surface logic to that. But the argument rings hollow when the defendant allegedly ignored court orders, skipped hearings, and, if Lee's account is accurate, told the mother of his child he had no intention of paying regardless.
Family courts across the country deal with parents who genuinely cannot pay and parents who choose not to. The difference between the two is not always obvious from the outside. That is what financial disclosures, sworn statements, and judicial scrutiny are for.
Meanwhile, law enforcement in major cities continues to process cases where individuals test the limits of court authority and discover those limits are real.
Love built a career playing memorable characters. Big Worm. The Gimbel's Manager. Roles that made audiences laugh. But courts do not care about screen credits. They care about whether a parent meets his obligations.
The facts so far show a man who owed $250,000, missed a hearing, ignored a judge's order to surrender, and then showed up in a wheelchair claiming poverty after being hauled across state lines in handcuffs. Maybe the financial statement due July 1 will tell a sympathetic story. Or maybe it will tell the court what Lee already told the judge, that Love made a choice, not a sacrifice.
Child support exists because children do not get to choose their parents. The least the law can do is make sure the parents do not get to choose whether the obligation counts.
