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Colorado Father Forced To Pay Child Support To Ex-Wife Despite DNA Test Proving He Is Not The Father, Mother Refuses Visitations

By Tara West
Published on: 09:07 PST, Jul 29, 2016

Colorado father Chris Atkins says that he is being forced by the State of Colorado to pay $730 per month in child support to his ex-wife despite having a DNA test to prove that he is not the biological father of the child in question. Atkins says that his ex-wife, Lori Lonnquist, became pregnant shortly after they started dating, and the pair decided to get married. After just two-and-a-half years together, the pair divorced. Atkins continued to pay child support and visited his daughter frequently.

However, during an argument, Lori blurted out that Chris wasn’t really their daughter’s father. As a result of the verbal fight, Chris demanded a DNA test to determine if Lori was telling the truth. The father found out that his daughter, now 15, was not biologically related. Chris says he is now being denied visitation rights to see his daughter but is still be forced to pay child support because his name is on the birth certificate.

The Daily Mail reports that father Chris Atkins is frustrated with child support laws in Colorado, as he says he is being forced to pay for a child that he was tricked into believing was his biological child. The father says that the whole ordeal began after his ex-wife, Lori, informed him during a fit of anger that their daughter wasn’t even his child. She told him that the child belonged to someone else and that he wasn’t her real father. Following the argument, Chris demanded answers and had a DNA test performed. Atkins found out that his daughter was not biologically related to him and that he had been tricked by his ex-wife.

The father continued to pay child support until the DNA test and then filed to have the child support payments suspended, as he was no longer being allowed visitation rights to see his daughter. KDVR reports that Chris has not been allowed to see the girl he considers his daughter for four years but that payments are still required.

Essentially, Chris says that Lori is collecting child support payments for a child that is not biologically his and that she is not allowing him to maintain a relationship with as an adoptive parent. Meanwhile, Chris says matters are only made worse by the fact that Lori found the teen’s biological father and that she is allowing the man visitation but is not forcing him to pay any child support because Chris is still listed on the birth certificate.

“I just want my daughter, but I can’t even see her, but yet I’m still paying child support. And the biological father has been found and he gets to spend time with her. I don’t get nothing.”

According to the father, Chris has asked that visitation rights be given and that he wouldn’t mind paying child support if he could see his daughter. However, he says that Lori is denying him that right; therefore, he should no longer be forced to pay the hefty payments. Lori has said the only way she will agree to stop collecting child support payments is if Chris agrees to give up all parental rights to the teen. Lori wants the teen to take the last name of her current partner that she is slated to marry.

When Lori was confronted about the lies and child support, she noted that she doesn’t feel bad about taking the payments or asking Chris to give up his parental rights. When asked if she thought her actions were “greedy,” Lori said “maybe,” but she doesn’t care.

“Maybe, but I don’t feel bad about it, I really don’t.”

What do you think about the child support case? If a child is determined not to be biologically related to a father, should the father be allowed to stop child support payments if he is no longer being given visitation rights to see the child?

[Image via Shutterstock]

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