Faizon Love didn't show up to court, and now he's paying the price. The 58-year-old actor, famous for playing the hyper-irritable Gimbels manager Wanda in the holiday classic Elf and Big Worm in Friday, was booked into the Orient Road Jail in Tampa, Florida. He faces two counts of contempt of court. He is currently being held without bond.
This isn't a sudden misunderstanding. Records show this situation has been simmering for years, stemming from a messy, ongoing family court battle that caught up with him across state lines.
The $250,000 Paternity Dispute That Triggered the Arrest
The root of Love's current legal disaster is a reopened 2019 paternity and child support case in Hillsborough County involving a woman named Tiffany Lee. While the court established paternity early on, the financial fallout has been a battleground.
According to court documents, Lee claims Love owes her a staggering $250,000 in back child support. Before his arrest, Love tried to convince a family court judge that he was completely broke. Financial disclosures submitted by the actor paint a bleak picture of his recent career earnings. He claimed his highest annual gross income over the last five years was a mere $13,000. For last year, he reported his income as exactly $0.
The court didn't buy the "struggling actor" defense. Love missed a mandatory court hearing in April, claiming a medical emergency kept him away. When he subsequently failed to surrender himself to face a mandated 90-day jail sentence in May, family court Judge Mark Kiser signed an order to bring him in. Law enforcement tracked Love down in Riverside County, California, arrested him, and flew him across the country to Florida to face the music.
A History of Escalating Legal Trouble
If you think this is a one-off bad week for the comedian, you haven't been paying attention to his rap sheet. Love has established a pattern of explosive public altercations and legal battles over the past decade.
- The 2017 Airport Assault: Love was arrested at John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Ohio after a violent dispute with a 24-year-old valet over a payment. Video footage showed Love grabbing the worker by the neck and slamming him into the ground. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault, receiving a $500 fine and a suspended 180-day jail sentence.
- The Personal Assistant Lawsuits: In 2018 and 2022, Love faced separate sexual harassment lawsuits from former personal assistants. The 2018 case ended in a settlement, while the 2022 case involved allegations regarding behavior at his Georgia residence.
- The 2024 Hotel Clerk Incident: Love is currently staring down a felony assault with a deadly weapon charge in San Diego. Prosecutors allege that during an August 2024 dispute at a hotel—sparked because the hotel had no rooms despite his third-party booking—Love ripped a credit card reader off the counter and hurled it at a clerk's head. The clerk suffered a concussion, and a criminal trial is set for August.
What Happens Next for the Comedian
Love's legal team, led by attorney Glen Lansky, filed a motion for an extension of time the exact day he was locked up. It's a Hail Mary to get him out of a tight spot, but family court judges rarely take kindly to defendants who skip out on explicit orders to surrender.
Love has a court appearance scheduled for Friday morning in Tampa. Until then, the actor remains behind bars. If the judge decides to enforce the original order for skipping the May deadline, Love could be looking at a full three-month stay in Florida custody just to resolve the contempt charges. And that's all before he heads back to California to face a jury for allegedly throwing a credit card machine at a hotel employee.
If you're tracking celebrity legal meltdowns, keep your eyes on the Tampa court docket this weekend. The transition from Hollywood sets to a local jail cell happened fast, but the paperwork making it happen took years to stack up.
