THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609200006
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 46 lines
It is time for common sense and fair play to overrule the arcane legal technicalities that keep Federico L. Ampey paying child support for a girl who is not his daughter.
This Kafkaesque drama being played out in Norfolk is an example of the law gone haywire. The courts need to end this charade and find a way to refund the thousands of dollars it ordered Mr. Ampey to pay while acknowledging that he was not the biological father of this girl.
In a nutshell, Ampey had a brief romantic interlude with the mother of this teenager about 18 years ago. A year later she had a baby and claimed it was his. Ampey denied paternity - he said the time frame was all wrong.
The woman had another out-of-wedlock child seven years ago and slipped into a coma-like state during childbirth. She remains incapacitated today. Since then, guardians of the girl went to court to make Ampey financially responsible for her. Ampey went to court initially without a lawyer. Confused and intimidated, he signed documents admitting paternity. Later, the guardians sought and were awarded child support in the amount of $153 every two weeks.
DNA analysis has since proved with scientific certainty that Federico Ampey could not be the father of this child.
The courts know this, but legal precepts res judicata and collateral estoppel say facts properly decided in court cannot be retried, even if the results are unjust. Because of these principles, Ampey has been thwarted in his efforts to shake off the shackles of child support that he has been paying since 1992.
Last week Ampey's case was in court again, with a lawyer who has donated his services. The circuit court judge ruled against Ampey without listening to witnesses. The judge contended that there was nothing he could do to ease Ampey's plight. Only legislation passed by the General Assembly can liberate him.
If that's the case, legislators need to immediately amend state law to establish straightforward procedures for analyzing evidence that seems to disprove a prior ruling.
This miscarriage of justice is unconscionable and must be reversed. You can't swing a cat in Virginia without hitting a deadbeat dad, yet here's a childless man who's been paying support for a stranger's daughter for years.
Ironically, Gov. George F. Allen has declared September Child Support Enforcement Month. Federico Ampey should be the poster child. by CNB