TOPEKA - Wife has an affair, gets pregnant and gives birth to a boy. Husband and wife divorce. Tests show the husband isn't the father, but a court orders him to pay child support anyway.
It is a story of what happens when the birds and the bees get entangled with the letter of the law, and on Wednesday, it had Kansas lawmakers scratching their heads.
Master Sgt. Christopher Sprowson is a 19-year Army veteran now on his third tour in Iraq. His wife, Karey, and three children live near Fort Riley, where she stays home to raise the children.
In 1995, Sprowson's first wife had an affair and got pregnant. The couple divorced when the child was still a baby, and Sprowson has never had a relationship with the boy. Genetic tests prove the boy, now 13, is not his.
But a judge decided it didn't matter. According to Kansas law, a husband is the "presumed father" of his wife's children — even if the children were fathered by another man. Because the boy's mother could not tell the court who the father was, the judge ruled Sprowson had to pay.
The boy's mother never sought child support and offered to forgo the money, Karey Sprowson said. But the state required the payments because the mother once received welfare. The state automatically seeks child support for any parent receiving state assistance.
Read the complete story at kansascity.com
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