Columnist Sandra Thompson: Sex, lies and DNA complicate matters

Sandra Thompson

Sunday, June 27, 1999 | 9:28 a.m.

Sandra Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or through e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com

FOR 14 YEARS, Mark went about his business routinely, building a career and eventually marrying.

Imagine his surprise when he received a letter from the Clark County District Attorney's Office saying that he owed child support for a 14-year-old girl he didn't even know.

He did know the mother, whom he dated two or three times in 1981 or '82. He ran into her a few months after they stopped seeing each other, and saw she was pregnant. But he says she never told him he might be the father.

However, Family Court said he should have "done the math" and suspected it. The judge also noted that he was at the birth, which showed interest in the child. Mark, however, says several of the woman's housemates also were there. He says he was asked to videotape the birth.

Nevertheless, Mark was ordered to pay $100 a month in child support. He is balking, based on "principle" and the fact that the woman waited 14 years to tell him about the child. The time lag didn't matter to the child support hearing master, who said he must pay. Now Mark's in danger of losing his driver's license, and because the child support "debt" is on his credit report, Mark says it has hurt his chances of getting a mortgage.

The child's birth certificate lists the father as "unknown." The mother admits that at least two of the men she was dating at the time could have been the father. The welfare office tried to track down both of them, finally finding Mark in Las Vegas.

Mark then took a DNA test, which showed him to be the father. That's not the point, he says. The 14-year time lag is the issue. He cites a 1996 Nevada Supreme Court ruling that upheld a District Court decision saying a mother could not seek paternity testing or child support from a man she says was the child's father because she waited 10 years.

That ruling, Mark says, didn't sway the child support hearing master or Family Court judge in his case.

The girl's mother, in a statement, says she did tell Mark before the birth that there was a possibility he was the father. It's not clear whether she had tried to contact him before asking for child support two years ago.

Maybe life would be a lot less complicated if people didn't hop into bed with everyone they met. As welfare reform gathers steam, there is considerable debate over who should support a child conceived from such a casual coupling.

So DNA testing is becoming big business. A friend noticed a billboard along U.S. 95 that has a picture of a baby boy with the caption, "Is his mother a liar?" It's an advertisement for a DNA testing lab.

Ask Edward Gould about DNA testing and lies. The former Las Vegas telemarketer who duped an estimated 5,000 consumers got duped himself in Family Court. But this time it wasn't money at stake -- it was his daughter.

Gould and his wife are in the middle of a divorce. He says he's the father of their 4-year-old daughter. His wife says her first husband is the father, and showed Family Court a DNA test indicating as much. So the judge changed the father's name on the girl's birth certificate, and neither Gould nor his mother have seen the girl for two years.

Gould hired a private investigator who found that the DNA test was fraudulent. Last week, a Family Court judge reversed his original finding and ordered a DNA test for both men. This time, the results will be sent directly to the court rather than through the parties or their lawyers.

Visitation also was changed, and Gould's mother is delighted that she'll be able to see the girl. Gould, however, still has to serve three months of a three-year sentence in a federal prison. In 1995, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.

His mother says Gould has "turned his life around."

Meanwhile, caught in the middle of these disputes is a 16-year-old girl who grew up never knowing her father and a 4-year-old girl who needs to be raised in a stable, loving environment.