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Brickbats

One Man Is As Good as Another

Reason Staff | 2.2.2009 4:45 AM

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Walter Andre Sharpe Jr. has been jailed four times since 2001, lost his job and had more than $12,000 taken from him to support a child that isn't his. It began when Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, domestic relations officials tagged him as the father of a child, even though he had a different date of birth, address, and Social Security number from the Andre Sharpe listed as the child's father on its birth certificate. The county fought Sharpe's efforts to DNA testing. And it took him six years to have a judge declare he wasn't the father, but that same judge also ruled he wasn't entitled to get his money back, much less any compensation for his time and suffering.

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Reason Staff
Brickbats
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