Oregon Man Ordered to Pay Support For Another’s Child

By Edward Snook
Investigative Reporter

Sedgwick County, Kansas – Jack Richardson of Grants Pass, Oregon has been ignoring a child support order out of Kansas for years, believing the child concerned was not his. Richardson had a relationship, over 20 years ago with Diane Baker of Wichita, Kansas. The two split-up and Richardson moved out west where he entered into another relationship which produced two daughters.

Subsequent to Richardson leaving Kansas Ms. Baker gave birth to a son and Richardson was presumed by the government there to be the father. He has raised and supported his own daughters with no help from their mother these past 18 years and never had the time or money to clear up his Kansas support problem. The justice system finally caught up with Richardson this past year and began garnishing his wages. They also confiscated his tax return.

Richardson, who has never had an abundance of money finally got in touch with Ms. Baker and she assured him the child was not his. Richardson and Baker were informed that they needed to get a DNA test done and that would take care of the problem. They then contacted DNA Diagnostics Center (DNA) and Richardson paid over $500.00 for a test on himself, Diane Baker and her son William Baker.

DNA found, “the alleged father is excluded as the biological father of the child (William Baker) named above. This conclusion is based on the non-matching alleles observer at the loci listed above with a PI equal to zero. The alleged father lacks the genetic markers that must be contributed to the child by the biological father. The probability of paternity is 0%.”

Diane Baker filed a motion with the Sedgwick County District Court on May 18, 2005. The case was heard on June 1, 2005 before Hearings Officer Lawrence Hollis. Hollis denied the motion and in a reported conversation with court personnel after the hearing he stated, “some one is going to pay this bill.”

After hearing of Hollis’ decision Richardson contacted an attorney in Wichita who informed him it would cost a great deal of money to fight the case and that he probably wouldn’t prevail because of the length of time.

At this juncture Richardson contacted the US~Observer and we agreed to attempt to help. We in turn attempted to contact Judge Eric Yost who is the Presiding Family Law Judge of the 18 Judicial District Court located in Wichita. The judge’s clerk informed us we should email the judge and describe the problem and that he would answer our email. We haven’t heard from Judge Yost, so we can only assume that he doesn’t intend on providing us with an answer.

Judge Yost is Hollis’ superior and as such he should easily see that Hollis’ ruling is clearly a miscarriage of justice, which should be corrected.

If you are outraged at this courts response and lack of response please call the court and urge them to do the right thing and correct their unjust finding against Jack Richardson. The court can be reached at 316-660-5800.