A Kansas man had been ordered to pay child support for the daughter he fathered for a lesbian couple he met on Craigslist. The man, 46-year-old William Marotta, answered a 2009 ad placed by the couple, Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner, who said they were seeking a sperm donor. After exchanging emails and meeting, the three signed an agreement that absolved Marotta of any financial or paternal responsibility. Instead of going through a doctor, which is Kansas law, Marotta dropped off his “donation” at the couple's home and the women successfully handled the artificial insemination themselves, with Schreiner becoming pregnant with a girl.
Flash forward to last year: After the couple broke up, Schreiner applied for public assistance from the state of Kansas to help care for her daughter. After doling out more than $6,000, the Kansas Department for Children and Families filed a court petition against Marotta, asking that he be required to reimburse the state for the benefits and make future child support payments. Marotta is fighting the order and Bauer and Schreiner are backing up his request to have the case dismissed, arguing that he is not legally the child's father.
A spokesperson for the Kansas Department for Children and Families says that when a single mother seeks benefits for a child, it's routine for them to try to determine the child's paternity and then require the father to make support payments. Marotta tells a local paper that he is “a little scared about where this is going to go, primarily for financial reasons.”
A hearing is set for Marotta to plead his case next Tuesday. (KansasCity.com)
