It is hard to find footage of Roscoe's serves partly because lately he been serving time behind bars. He got a two year sentence in a Florida Dept of Corrections prison for felony grand theft and worthless check. He was released after one year, and placed on parole until 2012.
Upon his release from the Florida prison, Tanner was transfered to the Orange County, California jail, where he served a 45 day sentence there for criminal contempt of court for failing or refusing to pay court ordered child support. He is on probation in California until 2012, also.
Tanner also faces possible jail time in New Jersey for refusing to pay court ordered child support there. And he was arrested again May 18, 2008 in Knox County, Tennessee for felony theft. If he is convicted on the latest charges, Tanner may be considered to be in violation of his parole and probationary sentences in Florida and California (and possibly New Jersey as well) and may have to serve 'hard time" there.
Roscoe Tanner's criminal history now includes arrests in Germany, New Jersey, Georgia, Tennessee, and California on various charges over the years, and has been charged with contempt of court over a dozen times for refusing to appear in court as ordered, or for willfully refusing to pay court ordered child support.
Roscoe Tanner inherited a trust fund worth approximately $2.5 million from his father's $9 million estate. Tanner's father practiced law in Georgia and Tennessee. Despite his wealth, Tanner apparently prefers to spend the money on his travels and for attorney fees instead of paying his court ordered support and restitution obligations, as ordered by courts in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, and California.
Relatively recent footage of Tanner's tennis serves is available from England, where he participated in a televised match and conducted tennis clinics during celebrity appearances there. Some footage may also be available in Tennessee, where he was paid thousands of dollars to conduct tennis clinics in Knoxville and Chattanooga before his flight to avoid prosecution and issuance of the fugitive warrants resulting in his arrest by Interpol.
The field of sports and music have many heroes and heroines worthy of emulation and respect, but Roscoe Tanner is not one of them. He is a recalcitrant deadbeat father child support absconder who has contempt for the courts, society's laws, and, ultimately, his children and their mothers, who have worked hard over the years to support their kids without substantial assistance from their left-handed prodigy father.
One would expect to see some evidence of remorse from this recalcitrant figure, but such only comes in books for which he receives royalties, during appearances in front of judges when he pleads for parole or probation in lieu of jail time, or in front of his "support group" of gullible Christians as he proclaims his salvation, reformation, and Bible reading skills while he asks for loans of money for attorney fees or restitution for his victims because the courts or his creditors or his ex-wives or former employers or repo men or bounty hunters are "out to get him" without cause or justification, because poor ole innocent Roscoe is misunderstood and can't stay out of jail long enough to play tennis and show off the many abilities God gave him.
I respectfully submit that God gave Roscoe the ability to abide by the same laws the rest of us are required to obey, but Roscoe chooses NOT to do so for selfish reasons. He chooses to eat in fancy restaurants in foreign countries and stay in fancy hotels and condos and drive fancy cars, while his children go without books and clothing and supplies necessary for their education, and while the wives he promised to support "until death do us part" get evicted and go hungry because Roscoe refused to pay court ordered child support or alimony. And the victims of his civil and criminal frauds watch him go to prison before he will pay the full amount of court ordered restitution, or watch as Tanner files bankruptcy to "discharge" his legitimate debts to them.
Despite Roscoe's pleas that these events are always brought about by a "misunderstanding", what you have here is not Cool Hand Luke's proverbial "failure to communicate." Roscoe's behavior is actually an ingrained pattern of sociopathic acting out. Because of his family's riches and his own personal wealth, and because of his unique tennis serving ability, he considers himself exempt from compliance with the laws that bind the rest of us, exempt from obeying orders of judges, and feels entitled to expect leniency at sentencing for his numerous crimes against his children, his ex-wives, his victims, and society in general, which has had to spend public monies chasing this fugitive across the country and around the world in an attempt to bring him to the bar of justice. Attorneys paid by the public have gotten him plea bargained suspended sentences and probation upon his repeated promises to pay his obligations, and now that he is rich, he insists on hiring expensive attorneys in an attempt to get out of paying what courts have ordered him to pay.
Oh, how his adoring fans idolize this magnificent tennis player because they "knew him in college" or they met him once at a clinic, or they say him on television a long time ago and still remember it. I invite those Tanner Tennis Titans to help his children with their homework while their mother slaves away at a series of minimum wage jobs thing to earn the money for textbooks. Take over some of Roscoe's debts - pay a percentage of his child support obligations so his kids can buy a pair of tennis shoes or a racket, or reimburse the victims of his fraud so that THEY don't have to file bankruptcy like Roscoe did. Or talk to some of his Tanner Tennis Village investors who never saw a dime of return from their "investment" in his dreams. Try to get some of the money back from the casinos which Roscoe patronized so that his kids can go to tennis camp.
Yes, sir, that Roscoe Tanner is a REAL hero to some folks. What a player. What a man. What a father!