Stenzel v. B

This paternity proceeding was brought by the Commissioner of Social Services on behalf of the mother who was on welfare. The child was born in May of 1970.

At the pretrial conference, the respondent took the position that the mother had had sexual relations with other men besides the respondent during the period of conception. The mother denied this. The court then ordered a lie detector test of the parties. The order provided that the test results should be given to the parties and their counsel, but not to the court.

At the trial the mother testified. The respondent did not take the stand…