District of Columbia v. J.R.M.

FERREN, Associate Judge:

The District of Columbia appeals the denial of its petition to establish paternity and to order appellee, J.R.M., to pay child support. Among its contentions, the District argues that Judge Bacon erred by requiring the District to prove paternity. Earlier, Judge Beaudin had stricken J.R. M.’s answer to the petition as a sanction for his failure to take a Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) test, which he had previously agreed to take. In the District’s view that sanction, eliminating J.R.M.’s denial of paternity, in effect established paternity and thus left to be determined…