State v. Slavny

Beasley, Judge.

The State has been permitted under OCGA § 5-7-2 to appeal a denial of its motion to compel Slavny, charged with abandonment of a dependent child, to submit to human leukocyte antigen blood testing to determine paternity. The court concluded that there was no statutory authority for ordering the blood test and no statutory guidance for allocating the expense.

The abandonment statute, OCGA § 19-10-1, makes no specific provision for the State’s requesting or compelling the defendant to submit to a paternity blood test. It does provide in subsection (f) for the accused to be able to…