In article , dg411{at}FreeNet.Carleton.CA
says...
>
> ( My comments in parentheses. )
>
>    http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/10829009.htm
>
>     'Fathers' locked in legislative loophole
>     Men must support kids proved not to be theirs
>
>     By Aetna Smith
>
>     DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
>
>     You have a relationship. You have a child. You split up. The father
> pays child support. It's not a perfect system, but it's reality for
> countless men.
>     And here's another reality: Some of those men aren't the biological
> fathers of the kids they're supporting.
>
>     Quincy resident Tony Winbush is one of them. He made his child-
> support payments month after month, year after year - until he
> discovered through DNA testing that he wasn't actually the biological
> father of the child. The same thing happened to Bobby Rhames, also of
> Quincy.
>
>     Incensed, they wanted to stop those payments. But Florida law
> gave them little reason for hope. Generally, it requires that child
> support continue until the child's 18th birthday, regardless of who the
> biological father is.
>
>     Now, two state lawmakers from Tallahassee are researching a bill
> that would make it easier for people such as Winbush and Rhames to end
> their child support. Eleven states, including Georgia, have changed
> those laws since 1994.
>
>     But some people worry that what's best for the children is
> overlooked in this debate. Fatherhood is about more than biology, they
> say.
>
> ( So let them pony up the cash... )
>
>     'It tore me apart'
>
>     Winbush, 32, said he'd been paying child support for years for a
> son he had with an ex-girlfriend. The Tallahassee maintenance worker
> had a good relationship with the boy, and they visited at least twice a
> week.
>
>     But one day in 2000, when the boy was 6, he made a strange comment
> to Winbush's mother.
>
>     "He asked my mom did he have two fathers," Winbush said. "She
> called me over there to listen to what he was saying, and he said: 'My
> mom said I have two dads.'"
>
>     It was time to get tested. Winbush and his son had the insides of
> their mouths swabbed for DNA tissue. In June 2001 he got the stunning
> news: a 99.9-percent nonmatch. He wasn't the biological father.
>
>     "It tore me apart," he said.
>
>     Rhames, 41, faced a similar situation with a child he'd had with a
> girlfriend. Rhames, a carpenter, paid child support without question
> after he split with the mother. But he also was confronted with the
> question of who the child's biological father was. He and the girl took
> DNA tests in 2000. No match.
>
>     "I love her," he said of the girl, but "she needs
to know her real
> biological father."
>
>     Armed with this new DNA information, both men stopped paying
> child support. Both went to court to get out of a legal obligation to
> make future payments. But both had to resume the payments. Florida law
> says they should have contested paternity shortly after fatherhood was
> legally established, not years later.
>
> ( So, does Florida law say that, if a criminal defrauder of money
> can hide it for the same amount of time, they can keep the loot and
> beat the rap ? Hardly ! )

Florida does have a 4-year statute of limitations on fraud.  Since
you haven't defined 'shortly after fatherhood was legally
established':    NO Proof offered,  claim fails!   ;-)


>
>     The men say they want to get the laws changed so a paternity order
> can be thrown out and child support may cease at any time if "fathers"
> find a 0-percent match through DNA testing.

Should this law abide by the same 4-year statute of limitations on
fraud?
>
>     Winbush and Rhames are working with a paternity-law crusader,
> Carnell Smith, to get a "paternity fraud" bill passed in
Florida. Smith
> says countless men are defrauded by women who trick them into
> fatherhood. The women, he says, either know the identity of the
> biological fathers or know there are multiple father candidates.
>
> ( On the sound basis that those women *ought to know who they chose
> to have sex with* ! )

Many single women have sex with enough different men in a given
month that the number is not one, but should be finite and probably
less than 10,  unless they are 'professionals'.  Do you then
ask for DNA samples from all the possible candidates?

>
>     Smith argues that a financial relationship based on deception but
> enforced by courts and local child-support offices isn't fair. The men
> in such circumstances, he says, shouldn't be forced to make payments.
>
> ( Indeed. )
>
>     Winbush said the emotional strain of finding out the truth about
> his son was bad enough. But the financial strain that followed only
> made matters worse.
>
>     "I loved that child, and he was special to me," he said.
"So I'm
> the man working, losing wages, owing back child support around $15,000,
> and the real father is out lying on a beach somewhere.
>
>     "I can't afford anything. ... I apply for a house, to buy a car ...
> then up comes the child support (claim)," he said. "I want to have
> something nice, but I can't have anything nice. If (he) was my child, I
> (wouldn't) mind."
>
>     Indeed, the Child Support Enforcement office within the state
> Department of Revenue uses many methods to collect child support:
> requiring employers to garnish wages, placing liens on homes and cars
> and reporting child-support debts to credit agencies, among others. The
> office also works with the courts and law enforcement to arrest parents
> over violations related to child support.
>
>     Smith and other challengers of paternity laws say the courts
> should consider the financial damage done to the man's biological
> children and to his current spouse.
>
>     Winbush, for example, pays $227 a month for his own children but
> $283 a month for the child who isn't his.
>
>     Lawmakers on board
>
>     He and Rhames sought Smith's help to lobby for paternity-fraud laws
> in Florida. Last year, the three men approached Rep. Curtis Richardson
> and Sen. Al Lawson, both Democrats from Tallahassee, about sponsoring
> bills during this year's legislative session.
>
>     Both lawmakers said they were struck by Smith's fairness argument.
> Richardson's and Lawson's staffs are researching versions of bills that
> mirror Georgia statutes passed in 2002. In Georgia, if a man discovers
> through genetic testing that he has a 0-percent DNA match, the court
> will relieve him of future payments. There is no time limit on such a
> discovery.
>
>     "We just want to give the guys relief when it's not their kid,"
> Lawson said.
>
> ( Which, since we don't make women pay for kids that aren't theirs,
> makes it equality... )
>
>     But child advocates such as Jack Levine of Tallahassee question
> whether the proposal is in the best interests of the child.
>
> ( Child *support* cash advocates, they meant... )
>
>     "If a man finds out he may not be the father, he should be careful
> in his decision-making to not damage the child," said Levine, president
> of Advocacy Resources, a consulting group that works with private and
> civic groups that serve families. "I think there has to be a degree of
> selflessness when it comes to that decision. It should never just be
> viewed as an economic issue."
>
> ( OK, Jacko, why don't YOU out YOUR money where YOUR mouth is ?
> YOU pay for any kids that are in danger of " damage "... Hypocritical
> bastard. )

Do you KNOW that he isn't paying child support for a child that is not
his?   No Proof Offered,  claim fails!
>
>     Levine, who has a degree in child development, said if the
> father's feelings change toward the child, the emotional impact on the
> child could be "absolutely devastating."
>
> ( But, he doesn't care about the devastation of the man... Bastard. )
>
>     Rhames' ex-girlfriend, Connie Miranda, says she understands that
> devastation. Her daughter was a "daddy's girl" - until the DNA test.
> Miranda said she named Rhames in error, not to intentionally defraud
> him, a situation that experts say is common.
>
> ( What, that those women don't know who they had sex with ? I
> don't want to view women as being that... DUMB. )

So how do they pick the right guy out of 2, 3 or a half dozen?
>
>     Since shortly after the test, Rhames and Miranda say, he's had
> little contact with the girl. The child, now a teenager, has received
> court-mandated therapy but refused to speak during sessions, Miranda
> said.
>
>     "She was his baby. He was so protective of her," Miranda, 33, who
> was married last year and lives in Quincy, said recently. "From birth
> until 9 years old, he was her father. He's still her father. It's wrong.
> How can you raise this kid for nine years and then kick (her) to the
> curb like a stray dog?"
>
> ( Easy... )

Lots of men knowingly care for children when they are not the
biological father.  Do you think it would be easy for them to
"kick (her) to the curb like a stray dog?"
>
>     Rhames defends himself. He says after he told Miranda about the
> planned DNA test, he was investigated by a state agency on suspicion
> of drug abuse based on an accusation by Miranda. Since then, an attorney
> advised him to stay away from the mother and her daughter. Miranda
> responded that a relative of hers filed the complaint. He was cleared of
> the allegation.
>
> ( Thats how... When MOMMY tells more LIES... )
>
>     Levine said he doesn't think there are "great thousands" of men
> finding out through DNA tests they are not the fathers of children. So
> he thinks these matters should continue to be handled in the courts or
> through mediation, not by wide-ranging laws.
>
> ( Just can't let go of the defrauded CASH, eh Jacko ? Bastard. )
>
>     Smith disagrees, citing that nationally 30 percent of about 300,000
> men tested through DNA analyses in 2003 were not the biological fathers,
> according to the American Association of Blood Banks.
>
> ( Indeed: More proof that " child advocate " Jacko is, well, a
> flaming LIAR... )
>
>     Paula Roberts of the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington,
> D.C., said paternity challenges, children born out of wedlock and
> infidelity in marriages say "terrible things" about the state of
> parenting.
>
> ( No, they say " terrible things " about the *honesty* of those
> women... )
>
>     "We've divorced marriage, parenting and childbearing from each
> other," she said. "Instead of a cluster of events, we see them as
> separate events. That does not bode well for children."
>
> ( Nor do slag hos who *create* those situations... )
>


Hopefully  Florida will soon change their laws to follow the
good example of Georgia and other states.


Mark Borgerson


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