Will Gaston doesn't seem to have a child fitting the description that he has publicized. His name was removed from Melissa's birth certificate soon after the DNA results were in.
Gastons don't address this directly. They only state that the DNA tests were done just prior to the parental rights termination trial. On the day of the trial Gastons were presented evidence that they claim they did not have time to prepare for. On that same day the court terminated any biological rights that Gaston may have had. Melissa was already a ward of the court and had been since 1991. For the apx. one year that Melissa lived with Gaston he still had no legal custody of her, he had a service agreement with social services to maintain the child.
Gaston was AWOL the first 4-5 years of Meliss'a life and only had a biological claim to the child because the diagnosed schizophrenic mother put his name on the birth certificate. Melissa's birth certificate was corrected soon after the termination hearing. If you go back over the Gaston statements you will not find any claim made by him that Melissa is his biological daughter.
Very interesting. Not being the biological parent of the child puts a very interesting twist on the case. If the parents weren't married, there isn't even marital presumption. Once it was established that he was not the biological father, exactly what parental rights did he have to terminate?
This, of course, would be the dream of those who have been named as the father of a child, get divorced & are paying child suport, then find out later that they aren't the biological father and are STILL stuck paying child support. The irony.
That's not true, Gaston does repeatedly state that he is Melissa's biological father. Where do you see anything regarding DNA?
You claim Gaston "was missing" the first 4-5 years of her life, yet you don't know this to be true. Yes, she WAS taken from her biological mother when she was around 2, lived in a foster home for a year, then went to live with her father for about a year before they took her.
You don't know if he visited Melissa when she lived with her mother. Although there are some things we don't know concerning the time prior to Melissa living with her father, there's NOTHING that shows that he was unfit, abusive, or neglectful.