Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa says he’s fallen back down to Earth and makes only a small fraction of his 2009 career-high salary of $688,000.
“Those were the days, when I was making that kind of money,” the law-and-order legend reminisced from the witness stand at Manhattan Family Court on Monday.
He’s on trial over child support payments for his special needs, 9-year-old son Anthony with his ex-wife Mary Sliwa.
He now lives with Queens Borough President-elect Melinda Katz and their 2- and 5-year-old sons.
The crime-fighter turned radio talk show host says he can’t afford the $12,000-a-month he’d been paying to Mary because his salary was slashed to $120,000 at the end of last year.
“I can no longer do that. I don’t even make that,” Sliwa told The Post during a break in the proceedings.
He is also paying child support to Katz, per a 2011 agreement he made with his then-friend. The former City Councilwoman had their children through in-vitro fertilization using Sliwa’s sperm.
“Melinda Katz is squeezing him for every dime she can get,” said Mary’s attorney, Paul Siegert.
Katz is expected to take the stand on Wednesday.
Sliwa told Support Magistrate Margaret Morgan that he has no savings, no assets and had to borrow $5,000 from his dad to pay for his divorce from Mary last year.
The radio personality had to take a drastic pay cut after his employer, Salem Communications, suffered damage during Hurricane Sandy.
Other than his volunteer crime-fighting, the colorful Curtis said his resume includes packing groceries, pumping gas and working as a manager at McDonald’s.
He founded the Guardian Angels in the 1970s as a band of civilian watchdogs patrolling the city’s mean streets and subways to help cops cut down on crime. The group, which Curtis still heads, now has chapters around the world.
His ex wife had to give up her $150,000-a-year position with the Angels following her divorce and now only makes $55,000, she testified.
She said she recently sold a diamond ring and gold jewelry for $13,000 to pay her bills. Mary Sliwa said she is in arrears on the mortgage for her $1.6 million Upper East Side apartment.
In a separate case filed in Manhattan Supreme Court against Sliwa, Mary called her ex an “inveterate, world-class liar” who was cheating on her with Katz while they were still married.
She alleges that he siphoned nearly a half million dollars out of their marriage and funneled the money to his then-mistress.