Big Unit Gets Stingy With Love Child

MARCH 27--Sure, Randy Johnson may earn $16 million annually pitching for the New York Yankees, but that hasn't stopped the baseball star from trying to legally nickel and dime a woman with whom he had a 'secret' child out of wedlock. The All-Star athlete, 42, last month filed a court petition--a copy of which you'll find below--seeking a rebate for $750-a-month day care payments he has provided over the past eight years to the mother of the pair's 16-year-old daughter. The child was born in September 1989, but it wasn't until nearly nine years later that Johnson and Laurel Roszell, 46, entered into a custody/support agreement and the so-called Big Unit began making payments. In an interview, Roszell told TSG that she chose not to seek financial support until 1997 and that Johnson has met their daughter once, while she was still hospitalized following her birth. Asked if Johnson, whom she lived with early in his Major League career, has ever acknowledged their daughter, Roszell replied, 'Nope. Nothing. Never.' She added that she broke up with Johnson midway through her pregnancy and that the girl was the star's 'dark little secret.' In addition to $5000 monthly in child support, Johnson agreed to pay $750-a-month to cover a portion of Roszell's day care expenses, according to an April 1998 California court agreement governing custody and support matters. In a February 7 motion filed in Washington's Island County Superior Court, Johnson demands the return of all 95 months worth of those day care payments, or $71,250 (plus $26,148.52 in interest). He contends that Roszell owes him the money, in part, because she failed to provide quarterly accountings for her day care expenditures. He also charges that Roszell has not incurred day care expenses for several years. In an interview today, Roszell denied Johnson's claims, saying that she has provided all required quarterly reports. And she added that, at the point she stopped working full-time at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and was able to spend more hours caring for her daughter, she asked Johnson's agent whether she could continue to receive the $750 payment. That request, she said, was approved. Roszell told TSG that last year she contacted Johnson's agent and asked for the athlete to pay for a car for their daughter as well as classes that the high school student was taking at a community college. After being told that her request was excessive, Roszell pushed back, arguing that it was reasonable. A Johnson representative, she said, then told her to 'put on your boxing gloves.' Soon thereafter, a copy of Johnson's motion appeared in her mailbox. A May 17 hearing has been set on the application by Johnson, who has four children with his wife Lisa and became a born-again Christian after his father's 1992 death. (8 pages)