Former North Platte, Nebraska resident Tim Spiehs has already been paying for 29 years for the girl his wife told him was his daughter. They were married briefly and then divorced. Tim had paid an attorney, but the lawyer didn’t show up on the day of the court hearing, so Tim went ahead alone. That was a mistake, but it was 1981 and few people had even heard of genetic testing and it was far from common in family cases. Read about it here (North Platte Bulletin, 3/11/09).
But even if he’d suspected that the child wasn’t his, he would never have guessed that whatever happened that day was res judicata, judicially decided, set in stone. But that’s exactly what happened. He failed to contest paternity of the child, so when the judge brought his gavel down, his paternity was adjudicated forever. And as usually happens in this country, there was no duty on the mother’s part to tell the truth. And she didn’t.
Eventually Spiehs got a DNA test. Amazingly, despite the lab’s statement “probability of paternity – 0.00%,” both mother and daughter blithely claim that he’s the father. The daughter goes so far as to say “I know my mother wouldn’t lie to me about who my father is.”
Anyway, Tim Spiehs started paying for a child who wasn’t his. Later on, his ex claims she told him the truth, but by then it was far too late for him to do anything about. (How she now claims he’s the father, I have no idea.) He’s taken the case to both appellate levels, spent a lot of money and is stuck with a lifetime of child support.
Why a lifetime? Just read Sanford Braver’s Divorced Dads. It shows that non-custodial parents who get behind in their support payments usually do so because of job loss or ill health. Tim Spiehs has had both according to Frank Graham who wrote the North Platte Bulletin piece. During those times, the interest and penalties built up and up. Spiehs is 60 years old, in poor health and works in a convenience store. Instead of looking forward to retirement, he gets to look forward to working every day for the rest of his life to pay for a child who’s not his.
Reread that last sentence and ask “what if that were me?”