He says he knew nothing about the other girl until paperwork showed up about four years ago saying he was the father.This case cries out for a change in the law or in the interpretation of the law. Normally similar laws like this would give a person a fixed amount of time after learning of the child's existence. It seems like Florida, the time to contest paternity begins from the child's birth or in this case, when a court previously ruled him teh father--because he didn't show at prior proceedings--notices for which he claims he never received.
He now has DNA results that show the 15-year-old girl wasn't fathered by him. He even has an affidavit from the girl's mother -- a former girlfriend from 1990 -- saying he's "not the father" and asking that Rodriguez no longer be required to pay child support.
Yet the state of Florida is continuing to push him to pay $305 a month to support the girl, as well as the more than $10,000 already owed. He spent a night in jail because of his delinquent payments.
Why is he in such a bind?
He missed the deadline to legally contest paternity. That's because, he says, the paperwork didn't reach him until after the deadline had passed.
There are times when the law doesn't make much sense to the common eye, but make a sort of legalistic sense. This is not one of those cases.
A judge has ordered another paternity test, but the child and her mother failed to show up for their test. Now the not-so father, is in limbo. Meanwhile, his current family is struggling with the fallout from this man's past--a past he didn't know about.
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