DEADBEAT DADS MEET NEW FOE IN CALIFORNIA POSTER PROGRAM.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

Charles Donald Powell Jr. vowed six years ago that it would be a cold day in hell before he paid any more child support, his ex-wife says.

So far, he's kept his word.

Owing more than $93,000 in unpaid child support, the former building inspector from Westlake Village was recently named one of California's ``Most Wanted,'' with his face appearing on a poster with 26 other deadbeat parents sought by the state Department of Social Services.

``This is not a guy who's unaware of his obligation,'' said Mike Botula, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. ``He's in hiding. He works for cash in the underground economy and has friends and family helping cover his tracks. It's one of the most egregious cases we have.''

Another face on the poster belongs to Alejandro Granados Picasso, a former Camarillo resident who owes $95,625 in child support despite sharing a $6 million lottery win with five others in 1989, officials say.

Because the lottery fund isn't in Picasso's name, the state can't track him. So their only hope at this point is that someone who sees him - or any other of the deadbeat parents on the poster - turns him in to the authorities.

``This campaign works - we do catch people,'' said Corinne Chee, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services, which handles child-support collection efforts. ``We have apprehended 29 evaders out of 62 we have featured on the poster in the past four years.''

And Los Angeles prosecutors would love to catch Powell. They've tracked him for three years, following leads and tracing addresses and post office boxes listed under his name.

In addition to owing child support, he faces a $50,000 warrant on a misdemeanor charge of willful failure to provide, which could send him to jail for up to a year, said Ed Mizrahi, who supervises criminal prosecutions in Los Angeles County.

``(Powell) clearly has the ability to work, make some money and support his kids. But he decided to avoid this lawful responsibility,'' Mizrahi said.

Mizrahi wants the law changed so this type of crime is a felony that can be punished by a prison sentence. Not paying child support at present is a misdemeanor, no matter the amount involved.

Powell's ex-wife Debbie says that not having child support has been financially and emotionally devastating for her and her two teen-age children.

``It's put the kids through pure hell,'' she said. ``He just left, and the kids didn't see him for a year after that. He wrote them a few letters saying, `I love you so much - but it's your mother's fault.' ''

Charles Powell paid $500 a month in child support for seven years after the couple divorced in 1984, she said. But after he remarried, he offered only $100 a month, and Debbie took him to court.

In 1991, he was ordered to pay $1,300 a month - which Debbie Powell said prompted her ex-husband to proclaim: ``It will be a cold day in hell before I pay you.''

He stopped paying child support and disappeared a year later, she said.

In 1993, Debbie Powell said, she located Charles in Yucaipa, living with his new mother-in-law. But police didn't think it was worth their time to arrest him, she said, and he soon disappeared again.

Mizrahi said district attorney's investigators have been pursuing Charles Powell since 1994 but have always been one step behind.

Even if Charles Powell is located, his ex-wife said she is not eager to see him locked up, despite the problems he has caused.

``I don't have a lot of animosity toward him,'' she said. ``The money would be great - put it in the kids' name for their college education. For him to go to jail - that's a real hard issue. I just want to see the shame given back to him. I want my kids to look at him and have them say, `Dad, you really did wrong by us.' ''