Why would the state choose to waste resources and Snipes time pursuing a patently nutty claim like this? Isn’t there some degree of judgement necessary before the state pulls the trigger, or can any women, anywhere in the US make a man jump through hoops by claiming he’s the father of her baby, no matter how improbable the claim?
Snipes wins paternity suit - kid’s not his
It’s unclear from the article how the New York City Law Department got involved. Any NYC Dopers familiar with the NYCLD who can explain why a department that functions as the attorney for the city would be involved in a matter between two private parties?
It might be that the office cited is the office that handles child support enforcement. If an unmarried woman with a child applies for food stamps or other financial aid, the amount she gets for child support is added in to her income to determine her eligiblilty. If she is not getting child support, the state will try to see that she gets it to help prevent the state from having to support her child.
Nope. This is a city office and child support enforcement in New York is done at the state level.
I’m curious as to why he wouldn’t submit to a paternity test… it seems they could have avoided three years of time, effort, and money if he’d just agreed to have a nurse swab his mouth.
Well… if the government came after me and said, “Regardless of how improbable it sounds, and regardless of the fact that you can prove you weren’t there, and regardless of the fact that this mentally disturbed, drug addicted person has a history of making outlandish claims against public figures, we’re going to take her allegation that you impregnated her in a crack house very seriously, and further we’re going to require you to prove that you’re not the father of this child by submitting a DNA sample to verify your innocence.”
If this had happened to me, and I had the financial resources that Snipes does, I might well have told them to go pound sand as he did.