Attorneys Stephen Korshak and Lee Karina Dani

Shades of Billie Jean? Michael Jordan defends paternity suit

by | Mar 15, 2013 | Child Custody |

Hall of Fame basketball player Michael Jordan is in the news once again. Indeed, his Charlotte Bobcats are having another abysmal season, but this news is for off-the-court allegations.

Jordan is another high-profile NBA star to be accused of fathering a child. An Atlanta-based woman, Pamela Smith, filed suit in Fulton County District Court claiming that the six-time NBA champion is the father of her teenage boy, and is seeking back child support and other financial damages.

The suit claims that she became pregnant after she and Jordan had sex in 1995 (while he was still married to his wife Juanita.) The couple has since divorced.

The unusual aspect of this paternity claim is that the boy has produced a YouTube video showing his alleged likeness to Jordan, and has pled for him to accept him as his true son. The boy has also garnered a flock of Twitter followers who support him and his mother in their plight. In the complaint, the woman welcomes a paternity test to prove her claim.

Jordan recently filed a motion to dismiss the paternity suit, claiming that the father of the child had been “conclusively established” in a prior divorce action involving the mother and her former husband. Through his pleadings, Jordan calls the suit “a shameless, bad faith attempt to abuse the legal system.”

Assuming Jordan and Smith were married to different people when the child was born, it would have been presumed that Smith’s husband was the boy’s father, and paternity may not have even been challenged, much less legally established.

So it remains to be seen whether MJ can claim the famous Billie Jean line.

Source: Above The Law.com, Full Court Press for Michael Jordan’s Baby Mama Drama, March 4, 2013