Paternity Case Dismissed Because Someone else Signed Declaration of Paternity

[sidearmsalpha]

My question involves paternity law for the State of: California

A few days ago, my ex-girlfriend appeared in court for a hearing she was subpoenaed for to be ordered to go to Child Support Services to provide genetic samples of her and the infant son she has been claiming since her pregnancy I'm the father of. The judge dismissed the case when the DA representing Child Support Services revealed that someone had recently signed a Declaration of Paternity. The judge also took into consideration the results of a non-legal independent genetic test I had done without my ex's knowledge at the time by obtaining cheek swabs of the child and myself and sending them off to a lab through DNA Identifiers several weeks ago. The results showed that there was a 0% chance that I was the father. When I confronted my ex with the results a few weeks ago, she adamantly stated that the results were wrong, sweared on the child's life that I was the father, and that no one else could possibly be the father. A rep from DNA Identifiers reassured me that there were no errors made on their part and that the cheek swabs I sent were not contaminated and had enough DNA to process. Even after all this, my ex still would not let it go that I was the father, so I was hoping that more testing from Child Support Services would either challenge or corroborate the results of the testing I had done.

However, when the case was dismissed, that meant that no other testing would be done. My ex is claiming that I'm still the father, but that she was able to convince some other guy to sign the Declaration of Paternity so that I can't establish parental rights anymore. From the beginning, I have had doubts as to whether or not I may be the father of the child considering I found out 3 months into her pregnancy after we had ended our relationship a few months earlier and had no physical contact since then. I remained in contact with her during the pregnancy to try to convince her to have a genetic test done after the child was born, but she made it clear that she did not want me to have any parental rights, so she was not going to cooperate with me. After the child was born, I opened a case with Child Support Services to find out whether or not I really was the father and to establish my rights if I was. She had refused to cooperate with Child Support Services on the testing, so she was subpoenaed to appear in court a few days ago which is when the DA revealed that someone had recently signed a Declaration of Paternity.

My ex has agreed to do another genetic test to prove that the first test I had done is wrong but will only agree to do it if it is non-legal because she doesn't want me to use these results to try to establish parental rights again. She claims that she had someone else sign the declaration because she is afraid that I will take the child away from her someday if I establish my parental rights. I have never threatened her with the intention to ever do that. At this point, I am still doubtful that I could be the father since the test I already had done has yielded results that prove it and the child looks nothing like me, but I am willing to do another test with a different lab to see what the results will be.

My question is...if the results come back positive, do I stand a favorable chance at winning my parental rights if I choose to take this to court considering that someone else has already signed the Declaration of Paternity even though she is claiming that person is really not the father?

[Dogmatique]

How old is the child and when was the DoP signed?

[sidearmsalpha]

How old is the child and when was the DoP signed?

He is now about 8 and half months, and the DoP was most likely signed sometime after August 5th, which was the date of the first hearing in this case, in which she did not show up. The DA made no mention of their being a signed DoP at that time. The judge ordered that there be a continuance since the DA also said that my ex had not gone into Child Support Services to provide samples of her and the baby for genetic testing as of August 5th. Because of this, the judge also agreed to have her served with a subpoena. On Monday, October 25th, she appeared in court, which is when the DA revealed that a DoP had recently been signed, so the judge dismissed the case. As I stated, my ex revealed to me on that day that she intentionally did this to block me from trying to establish parental rights if further genetic testing had determined that I was the father. She is still claiming that I am the real father and whoever signed the DoP only agreed to sign it to help her.

[Dogmatique]

I just read your post history?

What happened?

You knew she was pregnant...and....then what? Didn't you do anything?

[sidearmsalpha]

I remained in constant contact with her during the pregnancy after she notified me she was pregnant, even offering to go with her to the prenatal appointments, but she refused to let me go to any. I couldn't begin any legal action until after the baby was born, which I did when I opened a case with Child Support Services. I even turned in my application to them weeks before he was born, but CSS returned it to me stating that I had to resubmit it after he was born. I did this after she made it clear to me while pregnant that I would only be allowed to be in the baby's life on her terms. I needed to find out first if I was the father, then try to establish my parental rights. If I go by the results of the non-legal genetic test I had done, I can go on with my life because those results show that I am not the father. She is still insisting that the lab I used screwed up somehow because she is 100% sure I am the father. She has agreed to participate with submitting herself and the baby along with myself to another test to prove me wrong, so we'll see what the results will be for that test once we do it. If there is a chance that this test comes back positive, I really want to try to open another case to establish my rights, but the problem is that she had another guy (whom she is claiming is not the bio-father) recently sign a Declaration of Paternity.