THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604060048
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
A NORFOLK sheriff's deputy ordered to pay child support for a girl he didn't father takes his case to a national TV forum Monday.
In May, he returns to the only forum that counts: a courtroom.
Federico L. Ampey is scheduled to appear on ``The Montel Williams Show'' at 4 p.m. Monday on WAVY, the local NBC affiliate. The show is scheduled to be re-broadcast at 10 that night on WVBT.
With Virginia Beach lawyer Everett C. Meixel, who's donating his services to the deputy, Ampey flew to New York City in February to tape the hour-long talk show. The men said then that they hoped to raise money to appeal the decision of a Norfolk judge who ordered in August that Ampey continue making payments for the girl, now 16.
In November 1994, Ampey persuaded the court to order a genetics test and paid the $256 fee himself. In April 1995, Judge William P. Williams accepted the test's conclusion that Ampey wasn't the girl's father, but postponed the hearing on the girl's support.
Four months later, Williams ruled that the 1992 paternity finding against Ampey had been made properly at the time, and so he was bound by centuries-old legal doctrines that say you can't retry such issues or facts.
The appeal is scheduled to be heard May 30 in Norfolk Circuit Court, Ampey said.
The girl's mother, a former girlfriend of Ampey's, slipped into a coma-like state more than six years ago during a subsequent childbirth. That was when her family first sought child support from Ampey, who said he tried to fight it but didn't understand the legal system well enough.
The deputy, who continues to pay $153 in support every two weeks, said he found a sympathetic audience and talk-show host in New York.
``It went great,'' Ampey said. ``It was a fun show to do.''
Also appearing with Ampey and Meixel was a divorced couple from Texas and the woman's 14-year-old daughter. The ex-husband had stopped paying child support when he discovered the girl wasn't his, according to a spokesman for the show. Also on the show was a family attorney from Pennsylvania who supported the Norfolk judge's decision against Ampey, saying it was correct under the law. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
FILE/The Virginian-Pilot
Norfolk Sheriff's Deputy Federico Ampey, left, and his attorney,
Everett Meixel, will appear on ``The Montel Williams Show'' Monday.
Last year a judge ordered Ampey to continue paying child support for
a girl who is not his daughter. He is appealing the ruling.
by CNB