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Gary Johnson was billed $3,800 for the birth of his daughter JaeLyn. Johnson is not married to the child's mother, Rebecca Witt. The Michigan Legislature amended the state's paternity act five years ago to waive birthing costs for a father, if he married the child's mother. A year later, Witt gave birth to JaeLyn. The state paid for the hospital costs because Witt was on Medicaid at the time and is now trying to recover the money. Jack Battles, the Genesee County Friend of the Court, said the law is an incentive to maintain the sanctity of marriage. "It's totally...

Another wrongful-paternity case from hell: When Walter Sharpe received the certified letter on Feb. 6, 2001, he knew the complaint for child support was a mistake. Andre Sharpe had a different date of birth, a different Social Security number and different previous addresses. Andre Sharpe also had an 11-year-old daughter with a woman in Harrisburg, and Walter Sharpe knew he had been to Harrisburg only once, to register a car. He also knew he hadn't fathered a child to a woman named Terri Jones on that trip. So he ignored it. Big mistake. A court entered a default judgment against...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A Philadelphia man was forced to pay more than $12,000 in child support for another man's daughter

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A Philadelphia man was forced to pay more than $12,000 in child support for another man's daughter and spent two years in jail for falling behind on payments.

Brande Samuels, 29, shows some of the child support documents from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. Samuels has been forced by the state to pay child support for a child but DNA tests show he is not the father. SHERRY BROWN /Tulsa World Friday He promised himself and his family that when he left his prison cell, he would work hard to build a stable and positive life. After two years in prison, he was released early on good behavior and worked for less than minimum wage while he trained to become a welder. But that's when he...

A Texas publicist who says she was Rielle Hunter's confidant when her secret affair began with John Edwards is convinced the ex-senator fathered her friend's baby. "She would not have a child with someone that she didn't love - and she loves him," said Pigeon O'Brien, who says she was pals with Hunter for 20 years until they lost touch a year ago. As "who's the daddy" speculation persisted, the National Enquirer reported last night that Edwards lied when he told the nation - and his sick wife - that he ended the "short" affair in 2006. Edwards renewed the...

Tulsa athlete Micheal Thomas swears he never met Lawton drug user Tiffany Dickson. Paternity Mistake DHS falsely accused Micheal Thomas of being the father of a baby whose mother... Dickson says she never met him. That didn't stop the Oklahoma Department of Human Services from getting Thomas declared the father of Dickson's baby daughter and badgering him until he dropped out of college, forfeiting a football scholarship. It also didn't stop DHS from taking a portion of his biweekly paychecks and seizing his $290 state and federal tax refunds. "This is unbelievable. This is crazy,” said Thomas, 21, a former...

Saturday, Hunter's lawyer, Robert Gordon, issued a statement saying, “Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter's privacy now or in the future." JohnedwardssonSo I guess Edwards is pretty much off the hook on that offer to take a paternity test. Is that why he so freely offered to take one? But Edwards better not make her angry... oh, maybe by not giving her what she wants, forgetting her birthday, not paying enough attention to her, or by not marrying her in a few years... She could so change her mind. Talk...

The family of John Edwards' former mistress, Rielle Hunter, is challenging the former senator to take a DNA paternity test after his claim that he did not father Hunter's six-month old child. In the first reaction from Hunter's family, her younger sister Melissa told ABC News that Edwards should immediately follow through on his pledge to take a paternity test. "I would challenge him to do so," the sister said. "Somebody must stand up and defend my sister," she said. "I wish that those involved would refrain from bad-mouthing my sister." In his interview with ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff...

Rielle Hunter, the former presidential campaign aide who had an affair with John Edwards, said yesterday that she will not pursue DNA testing to establish the paternity of her 5-month-old daughter, despite the former senator's offer to participate in such a test. In a statement provided to The Washington Post, Hunter said through her attorney that she will not be party to such a test "now or in the future." The attorney, Robert Gordon, called Hunter a "private" person who is "not running for public office" and would not comment further. "She wishes to maintain her privacy and her daughter's...

Rielle Hunter, the former presidential campaign aide who had an affair with John Edwards, said yesterday that she will not pursue DNA testing to establish the paternity of her 5-month-old daughter, despite the former senator's offer to participate in such a test. In a statement provided to The Washington Post, Hunter said through her attorney that she would not take a genetic test "now or in the future." The attorney, Robert Gordon, called Hunter a "private" person who is "not running for public office" and would not comment further on the media frenzy engulfing her.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The ex-mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards says she will not participate in DNA testing to establish the paternity of her daughter. Rielle Hunter's lawyer, Robert Gordon, says his client is a private individual who wishes to maintain the privacy of herself and her daughter. In a statement, Gordon says that Hunter is ruling out any kind of testing that could establish who the daughter's father is.

Dallas lawyer Fred Baron told The Dallas Morning News today that he made regular payments to the woman that former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has confessed to having an affair with. Mr. Baron, who was chairman of Mr. Edwards’ presidential campaign finance committee, said he paid money to Rielle Hunter to move from North Carolina to another location. He said she and another campaign aide, Andrew Young, who claimed paternity of Ms. Hunter’s child, were being dogged by tabloid reporters who believed she had an affair with Mr. Edwards and fathered his child. Mr. Baron would not say how...

"One morning in 2006 Kimberly, then a 38-year-old New York therapist, was getting her three children ready for their day at preschool. She was cooking breakfast for her two daughters and one son when her husband, Ken, called out from another part of the house, telling her there was a morning show segment on that she should watch. Kimberly (who did not want her last name used) turned on the television in the kitchen. As the camera panned across a group of youngsters and infants visiting the show's studio with their mothers, she moved closer to the screen -- and...

Gene Disorder Complicates Sect Custody FightApril 27, 2008 · Lawyers for the mothers of 462 children taken from a polygamist ranch in West Texas will ask a state appeals court for relief, but the process is slowed by problems in determining the children's parentage. Texas family law officials continue to investigate allegations of physical and sexual abuse. Wade Goodwyn and Liane Hansen discuss the legal proceedings.Meanwhile, many of the children in the FLDS group suffer from fumarase deficiency, a genetic disease that causes acute retardation and physical deformation. The disease was spread through decades of inbreeding, according to John...

An over-the-counter DNA paternity test now offers unknowing families peace of mind - in every state but New York. Identigene, a Salt Lake City-based genetics company, released an at-home paternity test this month, giving mothers and their offspring a speedy answer to a difficult question. Unsure mothers swab the inside of their child's mouth - and the mouth of the suspected father - then send the swabs to Salt Lake City for testing. Three to five days later, customers can log on to a secure Web site to view the results. Identigene discards the DNA after six months, but keeps...

After two decades, Sean Reid of Surrey, British Columbia, discovered that he had a son. Fred Turley of Des Plaines, Ill., learned he didn’t have a daughter. And Wendy Lieb of Lewis Center, Ohio, made certain she wasn’t going to be a grandmother quite yet. In all three situations, crucial genetic information altered the lives of the people involved. And in each case, it came not from a doctor or other medical source, but from a $29.99 kit on a drugstore shelf. Reid, Turley and Lieb are among more than 800 customers who responded to the first wave of marketing...

February 24, 2008 Mystery over Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, son of French top gun Albert Preziosi Jon Swain Seldom have the French been so glad to see the back of an official guest as they were last year when Colonel Muammar Gadaffi left Paris after a chaotic five-day visit when he pitched his bedouin tent a stone’s throw from the Elys饠Palace. Last week the Libyan leader had the last laugh when the French were reminded of the possibility that their recent guest is the son of a French war hero. According to a legend circulating in Vezzani, Corsica, Gadaffi’s father was...

A Houston businessman now living in Canada claims he's President John F. Kennedy's love child — and he wants the Kennedy clan to help him prove it. Jack Worthington, 46, who bears a striking resemblance to the assassinated leader, has appealed to the Kennedys to provide DNA from the former president or from males directly related to JFK's father, Joe Kennedy. A spokeswoman for the Kennedys didn't return calls for comment. Worthington didn't say why he came forward now but insists he isn't out for financial gain. He told a Canadian television station, "I would sign an agreement with the...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A woman in Germany who became pregnant after an online sex auction has won a court battle to force the Web site that hosted the sale to reveal the names of the winners, so she can find out who's the father. Six different men won Internet auctions to have sex with the woman in April and May last year. They were only known to her by their online names, a spokesman for a court in the southwestern city of Stuttgart said Wednesday. "The woman wanted to discover which one of the men had made her pregnant," the...