Paternity fraud victim Brandon Jones with his biological son Colton.

NCFM NOTE: The story of Brandon Jones is distressing. It shows the callousness of government when it comes to the rights of men. Brandon is not alone. There are thousands like him throughout the USA and elsewhere. Brandon is in fact indentured to a woman under the ruse of best interests of children. Reportedly, the woman is living with the bio-dad of a child for whom Brandon is paying child support. A child who may still call Brandon “Dad” because that’s what he called him for six years. There is no question the mother of this child committed explicit fraud. No question that she knew another man may have been the child’s bio-dad. No question that she committed criminal acts. So why hasn’t she been prosecuted? Why isn’t she making restitution to Brandon? Why is he paying her? Why isn’t she in prison? Why? Because female criminals are seldom held accountable, especially if their victims are men and children, and almost never in paternity fraud cases.

The Brandon Jones Paternity Fraud Saga

By Brandon Jones,

In the summer of 1998, I returned home to Tacoma, Washington after 4 years of service in the United States Army, at Fort Hood, Texas.  I found myself in the dilemma many Veterans find themselves in; jobless, with little direction as to what to do with the skills I had attained, and how they would apply in the civilian world.  Being a Medic, it was fairly easy to find some menial work to get by on, so I took a job with an assisted living home.

Around that time I was introduced to a young woman, who was a friend of one of my female co-workers. We hit things off pretty well and consequently maintained a casual relationship for a few months before realizing that things were not going to work out.  We parted ways, though we would talk every once in a while on the phone.  Then one day she called with “news” of being pregnant.  My first question, given the nature of our relationship, and that it had been called off for a few weeks, “Are you sure it’s mine?”

This was met with an angry rant about what a jerk I was for daring to question the paternity of her child.  But given the fact that we had sex on the first night we had met; it seemed to be a legitimate question to ask.  Not much else was discussed at that point, we maintained contact, we would meet for lunch, discuss events related to the pregnancy, and how things would work out.  This woman put a lot of effort into making me feel that I was the only possible father of this child.

When the little guy was born early I was still skeptical about the truth of his paternity, but completely unaware of what I could do about it.  While DNA testing was available; given the previous responses to my questions of legitimacy, and my overall lack of knowledge as to the resources available; I did what any good man would do.  I swallowed my pride, accepted the assertions of the mother as the truth, and began looking toward the future of being a dad.

Soon after the baby was discharged we took him back to the hospital because of some apparent medical issues. This trip to the hospital eliminated the last of my doubts about the truth of his paternity as I believed the mother would not jeopardize her child’s life with false medical history given the medical concerns this child was facing.

Before leaving the hospital with the baby we were approached by a Social Worker who asked us to sign an Affidavit of Paternity for the hospital’s medical records. This form simply asked for our names, places of birth, current addresses, and parent’s names.  At the bottom, there is a signature block for each of us to sign.  In the mother’s slot, there were two check boxes, one denying the possibility of other fathers, and one acknowledging the existence of other possible fathers. The mother marked the box denying the possibility of any other fathers, and signed “under penalty of perjury”  I followed her declaration with one of my own, where I checked a box and signed under the penalty of perjury, that I was not aware of any other men who may have legal rights to the child.  One of us was lying.

The mother and I made a concerted effort to live as a “family” for the next year. Unfortunately things didn’t work out and we were forced to part ways.

This is where things really started to become revealing. The mother spent the next year and a half playing a game of “hide the child” as she moved several times without notice and avoiding scheduled visitation between me and the child whenever possible.

After the attacks of September 11th I was concerned about getting deployed.  I had gotten married to a woman, who had a daughter a few months older than my son.  More than ever I wanted my “family” to be complete, and one again I attempted to track down my illusive ex with a chanced phone call to her old number. Fortunately the number worked and she answered. To my delight I was able to talk her into re-starting visitation.

Things went well for a while.  I had been called to active duty, and was hardly ever home, as I was training to deploy to Iraq, but the mother and my new wife were in constant communication, and the child was at my house more than he was at his mothers.  I would come home when I was able, and he would be there, we would go on outings, and try to make the best of our time.  I left for Iraq, and the schedule remained the same.  The child was at my home more often than not, and the mother was “enjoying the break” as she put it.  I spoke to the child on the phone when I would call home, and I would send post-cards.  I was returned home from Iraq for medical reasons, ahead of the unit I had deployed with; when I returned home, things were somewhat normal for a while.  Then the mother began wanting more money.

The mother had stopped working, and had applied for welfare, which meant that Child Support Enforcement received support payments from me, and disbursed them in whatever way they chose to the mother.  Apparently this was not enough, so she demanded that I send her more money on the side.  I refused, and told her if there were items the child needed, she could let me know, and I would make sure he had them.  This was still not enough.  And now the child was old enough to comprehend that things weren’t going well.  He would talk to me on the phone, and ask me questions about money, and tell me his mom was mad at me.  She began interrupting visitation again, and would have the child get on the phone and tell me he couldn’t come over because of one excuse or the other. Eventually, phone calls weren’t answered, the gate at the apartment complex she lived at would not get answered and opened, and eventually she moved again and severed all contact.

Flash forward another year-and-a-half and I had finally gathered the money to hire a lawyer, and file for an official court ordered parenting plan.  I used a bit of ingenuity, and had a friend who verified insurances at a medical office call Department of Social and Health Services to get the mother’s address, so I could have her served with the court papers.  Upon service, she accessed a legal aid program, and got an attorney.  Her attorney’s response to my legal counsel was, “My client is willing to agree with everything your client is asking for; so long as he is the biological father of the child.”  WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I scheduled a DNA test, the mother went at a separate time, I paid for the entire test, and we awaited the results before proceeding.

Almost 6 years from the day I signed the affidavit of paternity, I received the results of the DNA Paternity Test.  It was determined that I was not the father of this child.  I had been duped.  My original suspicions had been correct, and the thought of following my instinct had been jaded by the idea of having a family; of being a father.  I had spent years of this child’s life tracking his mother down in repeated efforts to assert my rights as his father.  My family had opened savings accounts in his name to save money for college, my grandmother, on her death-bed, had smiled over his being her first great-grandson; my uncle who followed in death had found joy in spending time with his great nephew….It was all LIES.

On top of this news, I discovered that the likely biological father was in fact the man who had been having an “on and off” relationship with the mother for the last several years, and when I demanded that he be DNA tested as the father, I was told by the mother’s attorney that he wasn’t emotionally or financially ready to be a father yet and would not willingly submit to testing.

I cannot to this day put into words the feelings that I felt that day.  I could call it anger, but that would not do justice to the feeling; I could call it sadness, but again, that would sell it short.  I know I felt numb, confused, almost disoriented… all of the energy, emotion, time….for what? Regardless of the results I was still going to fight.  This was MY son.  I decided to call my lawyer and tell him to get ready to take this in the same direction we had planned from the get go.

It took a few weeks for my lawyer to file the necessary motions, and get things in line.  There was a court date set, and I arrived for the hearing, but I was the only person there.  Over the course of a few weeks that we had not spoken, my lawyer had disappeared.  Apparently he abandoned his practice, and rode off into the sunset with the money of every one of the clients he was representing.  At a time I needed most, I was without a lawyer, and without money for another….I was on my own.

The mother’s lawyer would not speak to me, because I was not represented by counsel; the court would not speak to me, because I was not represented by counsel. So the first legal proceeding I represented myself and asked the Court to let me fire my lawyer, the one who skipped town with his clients money, including mine.

After completing that process, I purchased copies of all of the paperwork surrounding my case, and found that the mother had filed a motion to have all of my parental rights removed.  I responded as the rules stated I was required; and included service to the Department of Social and Health Services, with a copy of the DNA test.  The mother’s attorney called and “strong armed” me into agreeing to relieve all of my parental rights or “prepare for a long and expensive legal battle”, where the mother planned to sue me for legal fees as well as revocation of my rights.  I was defeated.

We appeared before the court, where the state (not the mother) fought against us BOTH on the revocation of my parental rights.  Because of the laws in the state of Washington, the statute of limitations (2 years) had passed for paternity to be contested, and the case was dismissed.  In addition, the mother’s lawyer was able to argue to have my entire visitation revoked, while the state was STILL able to argue that I continue to pay child support.  That day, I lost my son, a portion of my income, and my will to fight this anymore.  I had lost money to a run-away lawyer; I was made to feel as if I had done something wrong by the courts for attempting to assert my right to fatherhood, and to my child.  I was then kicked in the dirt and spat upon by the same court as they ripped away my rights to fatherhood, while sustaining the financial obligations of being a parent.

The last time I saw that child was by chance at the YMCA, as he and his mother were leaving and my (now ex) wife and I were entering with her daughter, and our two sons.  Barely any words were exchanged, and the child looked at me as though I was a stranger.  He knew to call me “dad”, but it was clear that was only because he didn’t know any other name to call me.

It has been almost 16 years since he was born.  It has been over a decade that I have not seen, or heard from the mother, the child, or anyone; except the Child Support Enforcement Office.  They like to remind me on a regular basis that I need to keep paying them – especially now that I am unable to.  I have heard through mutual friends that the child’s biological father continued a relationship with the child for all of these years after, and that the child in fact knows that this man is his real father.

In 2010, I deployed to Afghanistan, I suffer from chronic cluster headaches, and am unable to maintain regular employment.  I am attempting to attend school for a degree in communications, as I cannot work in the medical field any longer due to the demands, and the hours.  I was forced to resign my position with the Department of Veterans Affairs because of the headaches, and PTSD related symptoms.  I am fully dependent on my 80% service connected disability pay (1400 dollars) and occasionally, when school is in session, I get a portion of my GI Bill cost of living stipend, which is variable, and does not pay when school is not in session.  But none of this matters to the state.  The fact that my biological children go without things they need does not matter to the state of Washington, so long as they are able to collect money from me.

And yet the mother and biological father are rewarded monthly for this deception.  She is collecting money based on a series of lies which continue to affect the lives of people she has never met.  The emotional scars left upon my step-daughter, who had a “brother” ripped from her life, are irreparable.  The devastation this has caused many others in my family cannot be measured.

As for the child who spent the first 6 years of his life believing that he had a father who loved him and suddenly stopped, only to have another man revealed to be his true biological father… what about him? I may never know how this entire series of events has impacted his life.  I will never know the explanation he was given for the sudden loss of our relationship. I can only assume from the experiences I had with his mother, that he continues to live in a “cocoon” of lies about his life.

I now spend what time I can, working with others to fight for change in Washington State, in hopes of one day preventing this “plague” called Paternity Fraud from happening to others. I have been blessed to work with some amazing people, also facing the same type of situation, emotionally invested in making change to the current policies.  God willing this will be the year.

By: Brandon Jones – Army Veteran and Paternity Fraud Victims; Tacoma, WA

For more posts on the subject of Paternity Fraud, check out: http://survivingpaternityfraud2ndwife.blogspot.com/

Paternity Fraud is a crime. Perpetrators should be seriously sanctioned.

Tags: army, Brandon Jones, child abuse, child support, domestic violence, father's rights, female perpetrators, fraud, identity theft, indentured, indentured servitude, lying woman, lying women, mens rights, military, mra, parental opportunity, paternity, paternity fraud, slavery, unjust, wrongful paternity