Child Support Injustice Exposed
http://www.woai.com/content
Reported by: Brian Collister
Email: BrianCollister@woai.com
Last Update: 9:40 am
News 4 has discovered there are men in Texas who are told by the state to pay thousands of dollars in child support, but they are not the father of the children. News 4 Trouble Shooter Brian Collister revealed the state knows it, but is making them pay up any way.
Rey Valdez was in the middle of a divorce years ago when his first wife told him she was pregnant. He wound up paying $300 a month in child support for his young son, but when the boy was a teenager, Valdez got an anonymous call.
“I got a phone call, and I was told that, ‘You need to look at who really is father of [the child] because you are not,’ and that angered me. I mean, how dare they?”
Confused and concerned after the call, he bought a DNA test. The results showed Valdez was not the boy’s father.
“It wasn’t right,” said Valdez, “I just couldn’t believe something like this could happen.”
He went back to court and the judge ordered the Attorney General’s Child Support office to do a DNA test. That office got the same result, that Valdez is not the biological father.
Despite those results, the judge ordered Valdez to keep paying child support. So far, he estimates he’s shelled out about $18,000 to his ex-wife for the boy.
Valdez said, “It’s money that could go to my children, my wife, myself, but I’m still paying it, cause the law tells me to.”
You see, the law in Texas says a father only has four years to challenge paternity. If they find out after four years that they are not the father, like Rey Valdez, the law says they are still the parent and still required to pay child support.
State Representative Harold Dutton has tried to pass paternity fraud legislation that would allow a father the right to challenge paternity with a dna test at any time. He told the News 4 Trouble Shooters what’s happening now, “is worse than an injustice because now you have the state participating in a fraud.”
“We have to fix it so the person paying child support is actually the father, and whatever we have to do to fix that, that’s what I think we have to do,” said Dutton. His bill hasn’t passed because he says the Attorney Generals office, which collects child support, opposes it.
The AG’s office denies that. We wanted to ask Attorney General Greg Abbott about paternity fraud, but we only got this statement:
“The Office of the Attorney General is obligated to follow the law. We must honor court orders that establish paternity and require the payment of child support. Our staff always encourages men to obtain paternity testing when it is a legal option.”
Representative Dutton said he’ll file his bill again next year, but he said he needs your help. You can contact your state representative and senator and ask them to support the change.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Merck // May 16, 2008 at 5:18 pm
DNA should only be used to establish who the biological father is.
It should never be used to force so-called “child support” on anyone.
I shouldn’t have to explain why.
It would be self-evident to any reasonable person.
If people can’t come to grips with this issue, then it’s time to overturn Roe vs Wade.
Abortion, adoption or abandonment should never be options for women.
If they spread their legs then they need to be held responsible.
If that were the case, I don’t think any man would have a problem accepting responsibility for not “keeping it zipped up”.
That said, in this man’s case he should not have to pay, and the courts should be trying to find out who the real father is, in the child’s best interests. Not so the real father could be forced to pay, but rather so the real father has a chance to decide if he would like to be a parent to his son.
The kid has a right to know who his real dad is, and the father has a choice in whether to share equally in parenting his child.
2 Merck // May 17, 2008 at 8:09 am
I just wanted to add that the *sorry excuse for a mother* in this case should be vigorously prosecuted as the despicable criminal she is. She should be forced to pay restitution to the falsely accused victim, in addition to a lengthy prison sentence for fraud and intentionally inflicting irreparable damage on all parties involved.
She is the perpetrator in this case, everyone else, including the taxpayer, are the victims.
3 wrldofcontroversy // Jun 4, 2008 at 2:06 pm
The real Victum here is the innocent poor fool who has to eat FROM THE HANDS of the Corruption Created, Fueled, Owned, Ruled and Controlled *GREED* Empowered Polotiticians!
4 angocampo // Jul 7, 2008 at 11:32 am
My husband pays for two children that are not his… one is his brother’s child BUT we still are made to pay for thousands!
If DNA can clear a man of RAPE, then it should be used; regardless, of age to release a man from child support obligations.
Paternity fraud is widespread and these women know what they are doing! It should be STOPPED!
I have written the Tennessee politicians, child support authorities letter after letter attempting to get something changed BUT nothing… We spent thousands of dollars in court for the ex-wife to walk out laughing becasue we still had to pay.
Moral to the story, the Great State of TN, does not want the responsibility so therefore, someone (like my husband) is made to pick up the tab.
Meanwhile, her children have the SAME rights, as our children do if something were to happen to my husband. That is NOT fair nor right! It’s bad enough we do without to pay her childsupport…
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