 Earlier that week, a judge denied Farmer's request to reduce his child support payments, which were based on his salary as agriculture commissioner.Farmer, who had not been employed since leaving office in January 2012, told the court that the investigation into his tenure as agriculture commissioner had made it difficult to find employment.The judge found that Farmer was "voluntarily underemployed", although he suspended the child support payments for the months of September and October 2012 in light of Farmer's recovery from an August 30 hip replacement surgery.