http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/7818642.html?showAll=y&c=y
Child-support 'nightmare' may soon end for SP man
Bert Riddick has spent 13 years paying for a girl he didn't father. He hopes that recent changes in the law will finally provide restitution.

By Denise Nix

June 3, 2007 The Daily Breeze (USA)---After 13 years of paying child support for a girl he did not father, Bert Riddick finally sees an end to an ordeal that nearly tore his life apart.

Now that a second DNA test has determined there is no chance he is the father of the now-18-year-old girl, Riddick is again asking the court to dismiss the paternity case against him. And, at a hearing scheduled for June 27, he's going to try to get back every penny seized from his wages since 1994, when the state began taking $1,400 a month from him.

'This should be a defining moment in my life, ' said Riddick, 47, who has a 16-year-old son and two daughters, ages 10 and 8, with his wife.

Both of these moves are bolstered by some relatively recent changes in the law.

First, a piece of legislation that Riddick helped fight for went into effect in 2005. It established a new procedure for challenging paternity, including informing a man of his right to genetic testing. The law, authored by former Assemblyman Rod Wright, D-Los Angeles, also allows challenges to be made within two years of the establishment of a child support order or within two years of the child's birth. It also made allowance for older cases, like Riddick's.

Second, a court case closely watched by Riddick and other anti-paternity fraud advocates ended with a man, once labeled a deadbeat dad, being reimbursed for support he paid to a child who wasn't his. Riddick has cited that case in his court papers, hoping for the same outcome. He also has results from a second paternity test that the Los Angeles Superior Court judge told him he needed.

His nightmare began when he never received court papers from a process server notifying him of the case and a court hearing. Because he failed to show in court, a judgment was entered against him. The child belonged to an ex-girlfriend, Riddick said. Since they broke up and she named him as the father on the girl's birth certificate, he's had two strange encounters with her.

The first one was about five years ago. Riddick, whose driver's license is suspended because the state labeled him a deadbeat dad, was standing in the rain at a bus stop when a new Mercedes pulled up. The driver honked the horn and motioned to him, and he realized who it was. Riddick at first couldn't decide whether to break her windshield or get inside. He decided to be civil.

He first asked her, 'Why? ' She told him their break-up was hard and that she met another man who essentially date-raped her, leaving her pregnant.

Riddick said he told her to think of the girl, who deserved to know who her father is and know of any genetic conditions she may have or diseases she may be susceptible to. The mother said she would withdraw the child-support case against Riddick, and they exchanged phone numbers. He tried calling her a few weeks later, but the number was disconnected.

Then he saw her again in April 2006, when he filed the dismissal papers in court that are now pending. She was in court with her daughter.

'I said: "Hi, I'm Bert. I'm the guy your mom's been stealing money from all these years ",' Riddick said. The girl said he was her father, and he said he wasn't - and her mother had the DNA test to prove it but chose to overlook it to get money.

'I feel sorry for her,' Riddick said of the girl. 'Now, she's come to the realization she's been hating this man who really has nothing to do with her. '

His efforts to get out from under this financial burden brought him both to jail and to Sacramento, where he testified before the Legislature about paternity-reform bills.

At first, the fight was personal. He had cleared himself of the criminal charges with a DNA test, but the state kept garnishing his wages - leaving him unable to provide for his family. But when he went to Sacramento and saw the room packed with men, all with similar stories, he realized how big the problem is.

Marc Angelucci, an attorney and president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Coalition of Free Men, said that, unfortunately, Riddick's story is not unique. Angelucci cited statistics kept by the American Association of Blood Banks, which reports that, out of nearly 300,000 paternity tests conducted annually, almost 30 percent show no relation.

'We know there are more than that because there are men who aren't getting the test, ' Angelucci said. Of those, it's impossible to know how many of them are paying support for children who aren't theirs, he added.

'It's a serious problem that drives a lot of these men underground, ' Angelucci said. 'This destroys them financially and emotionally. '

Riddick had left his dream job as an IBM information technology manager because he couldn't make enough to support his children and a child who was not his. He switched from job to job, trying to stay ahead of garnishment. He and his family were evicted from the Torrance house they rented and moved into cramped quarters with his in-laws. They moved out of state but then came back about six months ago. Now, the family of five is living in a one-bedroom motel room in San Pedro. He is working at USC, supervising a computer lab.

Riddick's focus now, he said, is on his son. If he maintains good grades and scores well on college-entrance exams, the football player has a chance at USC - where tuition would be free because his father works there. In addition, when school gets out for the summer, they plan to move to Carson, where a friend has a home he will rent to the family.

Riddick, a soft-spoken religious man, said the case caused strain on his marriage, but that his family got him through the ordeal. He'd cry at night after his children were in bed.

'I cried for the fact that I couldn't be the type of parent I wanted to be for my kids because of this issue, ' Riddick said.

But, he said, after a long day of working and doing legal research, he would come home and someone would come running up to him, yelling, 'Daddy! '

'That makes it all worthwhile to me. '