Civil Arrest Warrant

A civil arrest warrant was issued in Texas for the new schools superintendent in Yonkers because he did not show up for a child-support hearing, The Journal News reported Thursday. The superintendent, Andre Hornsby, said he knew nothing about the warrant and had asked to be excused from the Aug. 13 hearing in Fort Bend County, outside Houston, because he had just started his Yonkers job a week earlier. "I didn't hide; I didn't seek to run away from anything," Hornsby told The Journal News, which covers New York City's northern suburbs. The child-support case stems from a premarital relationship that produced a daughter, now 8, whom Hornsby has seen only once. He said he has paid child support for years, but the hearing in August was about a request for higher payments. The Texas judge, Thomas Stansbury, said, "When I schedule someone to be in my court, I expect them to be there." The warrant is effective only in Texas, where Hornsby was a Houston schools official, and Hornsby can avoid it by staying away. But he has returned to Texas several times in recent weeks to visit his wife and two other children, who still live there. He said he would look into his legal options. Ellis Cousens, president of the Yonkers Board of Education, said the matter would not effect Hornsby's employment. The superintendent is paid $152,000 a year.