That's not true, Gaston does repeatedly state that he is Melissa's biological father.
Others who assume that he is the biological father may make statements to that effect. Gastons do not. They hinge their statements on "Legal guardian" and other such generic terms. Will's legal claim results from the service agreement that he had with the state to "maintain" Melissa for a year.
Gastons are not shy about exploiting anything that may benefit them. If he was the biological father it would be front and center and mentioned at every turn. That would be far more effective than claiming that social services was selling babies on the "black market". Gaston knows that if he attempts to claim that he is Melissa's biological father the state may have a great big child support bill waiting for him. May 20, 1990 - September 30, 1999. That may be what's keeping him honest (sort of) on this front.
Where do you see anything regarding DNA?
When Wilbur Gaston first obtained custody of his daughter from the STATE in l994, the STATE lied and forced DNA tests to be obtained, all the while, Wilbut Gastons name was on the original birth certificate from the beginning.
8. On September 30, l999, more than two years later, Melissa was still not released and parental rights remained intact, judge Fred Avera conducted a sham hearing for termination of parental rights. The morning of the hearing, some discovery was produced, with no time for Wilbur Gaston to study or prepare a defense, as usual for juvenile courts of no due process.
The judge did not care that Wilbur Gaston could not have possibly been prepared, and continued with the sham trial without a jury.
Gastons never give the results of the DNA tests, leaving one to believe that Gaston may have been excluded. The termination of his parental rights and the removal of his name from the birth certificate help to support this conclusion.
In 1998 Hazel Spees, correcting earlier testimony, testified that Gaston was not the biological father. She probably became aware of this fact as a result of her contacts with social services. To combat this testimony Gaston did not produce DNA evidence to support his fatherhood but rather chose to rely on Spees earlier testimony. In earlier testimony, Spees had incorrectly assumed that Gaston was the bilogical father because his name was on the birth certificate.
Spees denied on the stand that Gaston was the biological father of Melissa.
Bottom line is that DNA tests were done and Gastons aren't touching the results with a ten foot pole. The results are sealed to the general public so one must evaluate the resulting actions that were taken. Parental rights were terminated and Gaston’s name was removed from the birth certificate.
FormerLurker, if you need some help, sometimes the appellate case number is called a docket number. All you have to do is ask the Gastons for their appellate case number or appellate docket number and we can look it up for ourselves at the 9th Circuit website.