Posted on 04/10/2007 1:21:59 PM PDT by Quick or Dead
JEFFERSON CITY — David Salazar is what many would call a "duped dad."
Repeatedly, courts have ordered him to pay child support for a 5-year-old girl, even though no one — not a judge and not the child's mother — claims he's the father.
In the eyes of many, Salazar, of Buchanan County, is the victim of a law that traps men into the child support payments, even though they can prove they're not the dads.
-snip-
That kind of statement angers Sen. Chris Koster, who is sponsoring the Missouri bill.
Koster, R-Harrisonville, said he knew children would be harmed as men used DNA to break paternity. But he said the current law mocked justice by pretending that a man is a father even when the evidence proves otherwise.
His bill would allow men to bring forward DNA evidence at any time to prove they are not obligated to pay child support.
-snip-
Linda Elrod, director of the Children and Family Law Center at Washburn University, said she was saddened by cases where DNA evidence was used to challenge paternity. She said the cases not only cut off support payments but often ruptured a mature parental bond.
Others, such as Jacobs, want to set a two-year deadline for using genetic tests to challenge paternity. She said courts also needed the discretion to weigh the quality of a parental relationship and the best interest of a child.
But Koster said such arguments by law professors ignored the fundamental truth in many cases — that the man is not the father and should not be obligated to pretend he is.
"It would be just as arbitrary to hang the responsibility of supporting the child with those professors," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Sometimes, yes. Truth is an important value in the macro sense, but sometimes not the most important value in the micro sense. Two people can have a happy, wonderful, and long marriage with each other, and still not be completely honest with each other.
Indeed, maybe that's how they manage to stay happy that long. :-)
You have the patience of a saint.
I do know what you are saying. It’s too bad there are so many narrow minded people here only reading snippets of your posts.
Here another scenario: A teenage girl gets pregnant. Her teenage boyfriend wants her to abort. She decides to continue w/ the pregnancy and forgoes paternity and child support — raising the child on her own, or perhaps the assistance of her family.
A few years later, she meets a mature man who wants to marry her. That man raises said illegitimate child for years. Marriage doesn’t work out. What then?
There was no “fraud” — no “deceit”. Woman was upfront w/ man about true paternity of the child, but that man finacially supported child, anyway. I believe courts phrase that as “implied paternity”.
You will make a wonderful husband and father. Don’t let these nimrods tell you otherwise.
Spoken like a true lawyer.
No matter what, the child is ALWAYS the victim. If people would save sex for marriage, and not treat marriage as a temporary thing, children would have a stable life. And there wouldn’t be so many fatherless kids around.
I’m afraid it’s not as unusual as it should be.
I really don’t know what the law is now. This was 8 years ago.
But I do know that as recently as a couple of years ago, my wife filled out the certs for our twins and I didn’t sign anything. Did someone drop the ball? In that situation, it didn’t matter.
Here's a girl just your style Hitman!
Better snatch her up!
Look, sometimes there are situations where no course of action is perfect. You then have to choose the 'best' course, which sometimes gives some people the short end of the stick.
It sucks, but it happens.
...and, in fact, I'm not aware of any states that will enforce visitation rights as they enforce support. If the best interests of the child were the issue, they would enforce visitation also. That they do not, suggests it's about the money.
That support will be enforced in the case of a fraud such as this, but visitation won't be, may actually even be denied...suggests to me it's not about the bond, it's about the bucks.
so just who are these upstanding men having sex with women who are married?.....
Socialist Troll.
Yes, but in fact in most cases this never causes a problem over the course of a life.
And I do think that biodads should be responsible for financial support, too. I don't want to create the impression that I think they should get off scot free.
Now that our women have been 'liberated', yes.
Stop with the “troll” comments. This person has the right to speak, no matter how illogicaly.
And he hates crippled kittens!
Reminds me of my day as a traveling salesman across the fruited plain, back in the 1930s!!! ;-)
“A few years later, she meets a mature man who wants to marry her. That man raises said illegitimate child for years. Marriage doesn’t work out. What then?”
Nothing, unless the mature man legally adopted the child.
Without legal adoption, no child support owed to step-children.
None of the above.
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