Child Support Injustice in Texas
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.”
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. Until this is changed the state of Texas is participating in fraud. In this case, the state of Texas supports a total lack of morality on the part Valdez’s ex-wife.
“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 Dutton’s statement. 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.” Men in Texas know better. This writer knows many men in Texas stuck in this very position because of immoral wives. Essentially, the state supports immorality and fraud in the name of children’s rights.
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 tell them to support the change. Spread the Word. Eliminate unconstitutional laws. While you are at it, write your lawmaker about the Bradley Amendment and get it repealed in the name of America.
July 7, 2008 at 11:52 am
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August 28, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I definitely concur that to be wrongfully obligated to pay child support when a man is not the biological father is totally immoral on its face. It is a reflection of how biased/flawed the Texas Attorney General’s Office is and takes preferential treatment to woman that deliberately use children for their financial gain.
July 14, 2009 at 9:18 pm
As an adopted child, I am appalled that the only support you are willing to give is to a biological child. This boy, biologically related or not, IS your son as you are the only father he has ever known. While I agree paternity fraud is rampant and morally wrong, so is abandoning a child who has known nothing but you.
August 14, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Sheila:
Well, since you so illogically and ridiculously feel that way, why don’t pay the support for my kids? I know they’re not yours, but I could use the help.
Glad I never adopted you.
PMMF Custodian