DETROIT (WXYZ) - The state told a Detroit man: Pay child support for a kid that is not yours or go to jail! On Friday, 7 Action News went with him as he turned himself in at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. “I stayed up all night. Couldn’t sleep thinking about it,” said Carnell Alexander. Carnell says no matter what the state orders, he won’t pay child support for a child he doesn’t know and that DNA tests prove isn’t his. “I haven’t even had a chance to speak to him except for one time when we took a DNA test,” said Carnell. This is a case that started in the late eighties. An ex-girlfriend of Carnell’s had a baby. She needed help providing for the child. She was told that in order to get welfare she had to name a dad on paperwork. She put down Carnell’s name. The state then started a paternity case against Carnell to collect money for the assistance provided. A process server turned in paperwork saying Carnell was given notice at a house in Highland Park. It is something the Michigan Department of Corrections says is impossible. At the time, Carnell was incarcerated for a crime he committed as a young man. Carnell says he would find out about the paternity action in 1991 when he was arrested for being a deadbeat dad during a traffic stop. He has been fighting it since. “I’m almost homeless. I’m almost in jail. I am out of work. My money is threatened to be taken,” said Carnell. “I’m scared. I’ve been before this judge before, I don’t know what’s going to happen.” This time he wasn’t alone. He had Attorney Cherika Harris representing him. She volunteered to represent him pro-bono after seeing his story on 7 Action News. The judge said he will not go to jail for now. She put the case on hold until next month so Attorney Harris could have a chance to argue that he should not be responsible for the child support bill. “I thank you,” Carnell Alexander told us for telling his story. “Thank you Ms. Harris.” Carnell says he is not only worried about how this impacts him. He says something needs to be changed so that men who are wrongfully named fathers are protected. “We can be defaulted into being a father of a child that is not ours. I don’t understand the law, but we do have that law in place,“ said Carnell. wxyz/news/region/detroit/detroit-man-turns-himself-in-after-not-paying-child-support-fo-a-child-that-is-not-his
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 21:14:02 +0000
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