To: Whom it May Concern

From: Gunnery Sergeant Willie A. Henderson USMC

Subj: Unfair California Family Laws 7540-7541, 7611, 4058, and unfair Child Support Calculator

To make a long story short, I married my ex-wife in FEB 2001 after she told me she was pregnant by me, so I tried to do the honorable thing by marrying her. My son (or who I thought was my son) was born June 2001, the marriage didn’t work and we divorced July 2004. I found out May 2011 by DNA test that the child that I thought was mine wasn’t. So I petitioned family court to stop paying child support for a child that’s not mine.

California Family codes 7540-7541 states: That the child of a wife cohabiting with her husband is presumed to be a child of the marriage, and that you cannot challenge paternity after 2 years of that child’s birth by the husband.

Now my problem with this is I had no reason to question if the child was mine, because I thought my ex was only with me, and I didn’t find out about this 2 year deal until recently. When I filed for divorce we represented ourselves and had no legal knowledge. So I am forced to pay child support for a child that is not mine because 2 years have passed since the child’s birth. How is this fair? I was misled by my ex and now I have to pay for it, doesn’t seem right. There needs to be an amendment added to protect men so this law isn’t used unfairly.

California Family code 7611 states: That a man is presumed to be the natural father of a child if he and the mother were married when the child was born.

Now once again I was misled and married my ex because she said she was pregnant by me. It is unfair to make me support a child that I find out is not mine. There are women using these California Family laws and taking advantage of me. There needs to be an amendment added to protect men so this law isn’t used unfairly.

California Family code 4058 states: That you include annual gross income of each parent when figuring out child support.

Now the problem with this is there is no consideration for Military Service Members and their pay and allowances. In the military we get base pay, and you can get basic allowance for sustenance BAS, and basic allowance for housing BAH. The problem is I live in off base housing so the government takes my BAH due to me and my family living in government provided housing.  However California Family Law 4058 states that they can add that money into my child support calculation even though I do not get a penny of this money. This seems really unfair; they are factoring in money that I don’t get and making me pay a ridiculous amount of child support. My base pay is $3913, BAS $325, and BAH $2307, but I don’t receive the $2307 and it shows on my Leave and Earning Statement that it is deducted from my pay by the military, but it shows on my LES as gross pay and by the law they can include it, even if I don’t get a dime of that money. Just not right!!!

Unfair California Child Support Calculator My problem with the way California calculates child support is there is no military consideration. Child support is based on time share in California. So if you have 36% percent custody and deploy your ex can take you to court and lower your custody to 0% to get more child support. Why should military be penalized for fulfilling their obligations and have to pay more child support while deployed, highly unfair.

CONCLUSION

It doesn't take a lawyer to see that there are obvious flaws in this law and that further Amendment is warranted. California Family codes 7540-7541 states "that you cannot challenge paternity after 2 years of that child’s birth by the husband". At a minimum, the ammended version should read, "one cannot challenge paternity after 2 years of verifying/establishing that the child is indeed the father's". This law punishes men who do the right thing (stay with and trust their spouses). (1) Two years is an arbitrary & insufficient length of time to dispute something as fragile of an issue as paternity. One might not even have reason to suspect infidelity or an incorrect paternity until several years after the birth. Men should have the right to challenge paternity, especially once biological paternity has been nullified scientifically.(2) This law goes against the very idea of justice in that it protects the negligent biological father, the real culprit, and penalizes the court-appointed father. While the law may be designed to protect the child, it should not do so at the expense of punishing an innocent victim. The law is a good deterrant to negligent fatherthood; but it is in itself negligent, in that it allows room to punish the innocent while at the same time protecting the rights of the guilty (the adulterers). Further ammendment would make this law serve its just purpose; to protect the rights of ALL individuals involved, not just the guilty.

So as you can see the California Law makers need to take a look at these laws and the way we are doing business here, there is a lot of unjust in these laws and they need to be looked at. I am living this night mare paying $1294 a month for a child that isn’t mine and that I do not get to see. If anyone know someone in the military, that is a lot of money for an enlisted service members. I think it’s a shame women are taken advantage of men with these laws, and a real injustice that military service members are getting railroaded by these unfair laws. A man should have a way to protect himself but I have no options unless these laws are changed. I am living a nightmare and the law is supposed to be fair and impartial, these laws are clearly benefiting women, MEN SHOULD HAVE RIGHTS TOO!!!

Please look at the laws and give me some correspondence back once this letter is read.

My contact info is as follows:

Gunnery Sergeant Willie A. Henderson

10241 Waldron Way San Diego, CA 92124

(734)931-2670

willie.henderson@usmc.mil​

dub_h@yahoo.com

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME