The State of Michigan is running a Buffalo nickel scheme on a Detroit man who is being forced to cough up $30,000 worth of child support for a kid he didn’t even help conceive.
In 1987, an ex-girlfriend of Carnell Alexander didn’t know who had fathered her child, and since there was no Maury around to solve that problem for her, she desperately rattled off a name for a social worker to put on the birth certificate and state benefits forms.
During a traffic stop in 1990s, Alexander found out about his “child” when an officer told him there was a warrant out for his arrest for failing to uphold his paternal duties.
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“I knew I didn’t have a child, so I was kind of blown back,” said Alexander told WXYZ Detroit Action News. To further that claim, he tracked down his ex and took a DNA test which showed that he had 0.000 percent chance of being the father.
But 24-years-ago, Alexander was summoned to court but happened to miss it because he had gotten himself incarcerated for a short stint. Since he failed to sign on the dotted line, a judge told him he was still responsible to pay the outstanding $30,000 welfare debt to the state, even after they had erased the other $30,000 in support owed to his ex.
7 Action News caught up with the unnamed woman and she admits that the entire ordeal is her fault saying, “He shouldn’t have to pay it at all. I want everything to go away for him so he can get on with his life.” But now the court is saying if they don’t begin to get their cut, Alexander can expect to be reacquainted with those bars he knew as a young man.
Court documents, paternity records and the original welfare application with Alexander’s name on it can be found in the gallery below.
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Photos: WXYZ
