Can the court make non-biological father pay child support?
Here's the situation: My husband cheated on me in early 2004. This past year he found out through a letter from the child support office that he may have fathered a child with the woman. He went in for paternity test & he is the father. The kid is 4 years old now. The reason child support came after him was because the mother was on welfare (medical and food stamps). The mother is married and the kid has her husband's last name. Her husband has raised the kid since birth. The kid calls him 'daddy' and only knows him as his father. The woman has no plans to tell the kid the truth any time soon and does not want my husband in the kid's life. She got off welfare and dropped the child support case - so an order was never put into place. My question is this - say in a few years when the kid is 7,8, 9, 10 - whatever - and she divorces her husband or othewise leaves him and decides she needs the money, what are the chances that they could make her husband - the stepfather and only father the kid knows - pay child support and not my husband? He's not a dirtbag - just made a drugged out mistake years ago that I have decided to forgive him for since he's turned his life around. Please don't preach about responsibility - that's not what I am here for. I just want to know LEGALLY if this could happen. I've read about laws of estoppel, in loco parentis, etc. Would any of this possibly apply if the stepdad raises this kid since birth? We're in Ohio, by the way... Thanks all!