A Baltimore man is suing over a take-home paternity test he says incorrectly indicated he was the father of a 1-year-old girl.
Nnanaka Nwofor wants the Ohio company that conducted the DNA test to pay $75,000 for the cost of supporting the child and her mother and the pain of learning he wasn’t the father, The Daily Record reports.
“He’s filled with sorrow about it, and it took a long time to tell his family that he wasn’t the father, because his family bonded with the child too,” Nwofor’s attorney, Charles Edwards, said. “When a family goes all in and bonded to the child like he did and finds this out, it’s devastating.”
The Fairfield-based DNA Diagnostics Center Inc. claims its paternity tests are 100% accurate, according to the lawsuit, which says Nwofor’s take-home paternity test indicated he was “99.9999999995%” likely to be the girl’s biological father. Months after that May test, Nwofor took another DNA Diagnostics Center test at the prompting of an associate. That test found he was not the biological father, according to the lawsuit.
The second test prompted Nwofor and the child to be tested at a local health care facility, which found Nwofor wasn’t the girl’s biological father, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit blames the discrepancy between the DNA Diagnostic Center tests on poorly handled genetic samples and accuses the company of negligence.
The company has been used by government agencies and shows including “Maury,” “Dr. Phil” and “Paternity Court,” according to its website. The newspaper said it wasn’t able to reach the company for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this article