THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609140236
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 52 lines
Sheriff's Deputy Federico L. Ampey, the dad who's not a dad, wasn't in court, but he lost. Again.
He's the man who paid for a blood test to prove that he didn't father the 17-year-old girl for whom he's been paying $153 in child support every two weeks for almost five years.
He appealed an August 1995 juvenile-court decision that said he still had to pay, notwithstanding the blood test. But on Thursday, a Circuit Court judge - while agreeing with the juvenile-court judge that Ampey wasn't the biological parent - also agreed that Ampey still had to pay, fair or not, lawyers involved in the case said.
It's all about legal precedents. Since another judge earlier had ruled that Ampey was the father, the decision stands under common or case-based laws saying you can't re-try facts or issues already properly decided in court, even if the results may be unjust. The reasoning behind the laws is that the public must be able to rely on the finality of court decisions.
That quest for confidence in the courts has hurt Ampey, however. He wasn't represented by a lawyer when first approached about paternity, and said he was confused and intimidated in court. He denied it, but later signed papers admitting it, and then couldn't hire a lawyer to fight it anew.
Thursday's proceeding was scheduled as just a pre-trial conference before a planned Oct. 8 trial, but Judge John C. Morrison Jr. decided to go ahead and rule without hearing from witnesses, since there were no disputes about the facts.
Judge Morrison said in effect that the law's the law even if, as he quoted Charles Dickens' ``Oliver Twist,'' the law is sometimes ``a ass.'' For a different result, the General Assembly first must change the law, the judge said.
Ampey's lawyer said they will appeal. Again.
``The bottom line is still `any dad'll do ya,' '' said Everett C. Meixel, who's donating his services to Ampey. ``Until we get it changed.''
The girl is in Social Services' custody, and staying with an aunt. The girl's mother has been in a coma-like state in a nursing home for seven years, suffering from complications from a subsequent childbirth. She and Ampey had a brief affair the year before the girl's birth.
Ampey, 38, was out of town Thursday visiting friends. He didn't know of the decision as of Friday, his lawyer said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
BETH BERGMAN
The Virginian-Pilot
Federico L. Ampey paid for the blood test that proved he isn't the
father of a teen-aged girl he's paying child support for.
KEYWORDS: CHILD SUPPORT APPEAL by CNB