Michigan Dad In Fight To Change Paternity Law

HARTLAND (WWJ) - A Michigan man will ask a state legislative panel to change a law that he says is keeping him from his 6-year-old daughter.

Daniel Quinn of Hartland, who says he is the child's biological father, raised Maeleigh until she was two and half. That's when this then-girlfriend went back to her husband.

Under the Michigan Paternity Act, he said, the husband has the legal right to Maeleigh even though he's not fit.

"He was caught using my daughter to traffic drugs from the state of Kentucky to the state of Ohio," Quinn told WWJ Newsradio 950's Sandra McNeil. "He has since pled guilty to child neglect and has pled guilty to five felony drug charges in the state of Ohio, and is currently serving a three-year sentence in prison."

The mother is in prison as well and Maeleigh is now staying with the husband's parents.

Quinn said he misses his daughter. "The pain that I feel is the same pain that someone would feel if their child was kidnapped by a stranger. She's gone," he said.

Quinn will testify before a House of Representatives panel to change the Michigan Paternity Act, to allow bringing a paternity action to have a DNA test given to a child to determine who is Maeleigh's  biological father.

Currently, the Act currently says that any child born to a married woman is assumed to be her husband's biological child.

House bills 5328-5329 were introduced by Rep. Matt Lori, R-Constantine, and Patrick Somerville, R-New Boston. Similar bills were introduced by Sen. Steve Bieda, D-Warren, and Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge.