A Michigan judge says she is “outraged” at a man who was ordered to pay $30,000 in back child support, though the child in question isn’t even his.
Carnell Alexander has been hassled by the legal system for years all because in 1987 an ex-girlfriend falsely listed him as the father of her son on a welfare benefits form.
But Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Kathleen McCarthy is unsympathetic to Alexander’s plight, though he has taken a DNA test to prove that he did not father the child.
“I am outraged that Mr. Alexander for two and a half decades failed to take this matter seriously,” McCarthy said during her decision on Tuesday, according to KFOR.
McCarthy ruled that Alexander must still pay the $30,000 because he failed to appeal the case in a timely manner.
“That motion must be filed within three years after the child’s birth, or within one year after the order of filiation is entered. The defendant has failed to timely file this motion setting aside the acknowledgement of parentage,” McCarthy said.
But Alexander says he was only first made aware of the false paternity claim during a 1991 traffic stop when the arresting officer told Alexander he was a “deadbeat dad.”
That came as a shock to Alexander, who knew he was not the father of anyone’s child.
Alexander’s case was bungled even further when a court document process server falsified a document showing that he refused to sign a court summons pertaining to the child support case. But Alexander was in jail at the time the document was served. (RELATED: Man Ordered To Pay Back $30,000 For Kid That Isn’t His, Or Else)
Since then, Alexander’s ex-girlfriend has admitted she lied on the welfare form in order to get benefits. And besides the DNA test, the actual father of the boy is in his life.
“How can you start a case with a lie?” Alexander asked ABC7 after Tuesday’s court session. “The mom lied. The process server lied. Now I have to pay for it.”
But that reasoning has not swayed McCarthy.
Alexander has said that he’s never had the money to seek proper legal counsel. And with an eighth grade education, he wasn’t knowledgeable about what forms and motions to file to appeal his case.
“Somebody should have helped him,” Alexander’s current attorney, Cherika Harris, told ABC7. “To continue to harass and burden him to pay for a child that is not his, when they know who the real father is now, I don’t understand this.”
“The law is not going to fit into everybody’s situation,” Alexander told ABC7. “Why don’t they use common sense?”
The only reprieve so far for Alexander is that he no longer faces the threat of prison time over the ordeal.
The Daily Caller sought reaction from Harris to Judge McCarthy’s claim that Alexander has acted outrageously, but she did not immediately respond.