Man Finds Out Child is Not His Following $12,000 in Child Support Payments

Fox News, Dec 23, 2008

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a man was forced to pay out more than $12,000 in child support, and spent two years in jail for having fallen behind in his payments, only to find out that the child he was paying for was someone else's.

According to prosecutor Edward M. Marsico Jr. in Dauphin County, Walter Andre Sharpe Jr.'s case is currently being examined because even after it was established that he is not the father of the girl, he has been as yet unable to recover the child support payments he was forced to contribute. There is no specific target in the investigation, at current.

Sharpe's troubles originally began in 2001, when he signed for a certified letter that was addressed to Andre Sharpe, the father of the girl. The letter ordered Andre Sharpe to attend a child support conference where the girl's mother was living at the time, in Dauphin County. Water Sharpe was already supporting four children from a previous marriage, so he ignored the letter. When neither man showed up to the court date, a judge ruled that he was the father and the county family welfare agency began to garnish his wages from his job at a trash hauling company.

For not keeping up with the support payments between 2001 and 2005, he was forced to serve four six month terms in jail, and he lost his job as a result. He filed numerous petitions for DNA testing but they were denied by the judge and opposed by the domestic relations officials with the court. In May of 2007, the paternity order against Walter Sharpe was finally overturned because the girl's grandmother and mother both failed to show up to a court hearing, but the judge ruled in October of the same year that Walter Sharpe was not entitled to any compensation despite the mix up.

Walter Sharpe and his attorney claim that his identity was stolen in 2002 when he met with agency officials, providing identification to show that he was not the father. Instead, he and his attorney Tabetha Tanner believe that his personal information was entered into the agency's computer records. Officials in the domestic relations office with the court would not respond to questions posed by newspapers, though they did say in court papers that after "reasonable investigation" it was determined that Walter Sharpe was the father.

Walter Sharpe is hoping to receive compensation for the $12,000 that he was forced to pay for child support for a daughter that was not his. Although it has been proven that the girl was not his daughter, a judge has ruled that he is not entitled to compensation for the garnishment of his wages over a period of several years.

Andre Sharpe, the real father of the girl says that he has always supported his daughter, who is living with him in his Philadelphia home and is about to graduate from high school.