Oklahoma Man Ordered To Pay Child Support Despite Not Being Father

from 5News:

TULSA (KFSM) — A man in Oklahoma is hoping to change the law after he has to continue to pay child support for a baby that is not his, according to our affiliate KOTV.

When Thomas’ high school girlfriend got pregnant, he married her. Five months later she had a little boy and he believed he had a son, but their marriage fell apart.

Thomas decided to take a paternity test when the boy was three years old.

“It comes back zero percent. I was in my office and I saw that. I should’ve expected it but I didn’t and it hit me. I’m telling my co-worker how shocked I am that someone could do this to someone,” he said.

The judge ordered Thomas to take another DNA test and he got the same result. The judge first ruled that Thomas was off the hook financially, but then reversed the decision because Oklahoma law says men must question paternity within two years of the child’s birth.

Thomas said that he had no reason to question it before he did, but, because he missed the deadline, the judge ordered him to pay around $500 a month in child support and nearly $15,000 in back support – for a child that is not his.

“I wish I was telling a lie,” he said. “I wish it wasn’t the truth but it is. That’s what makes it so crazy. Everyone I talk to about this can’t believe where the court system is coming from.”

Thomas wants lawmakers to change the law. He said he believes DNA matters regardless of when a man learns he’s not the father of a child.

“At this point, there’s really nothing I can do to get out of the $15,000 or get out of the child support, it’s done, it’s the law,” he said.

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