The
Curious Case of Staff Sergeant Parsons
February 22, 2013
Business Insider
By
Jack Mandaville
“Stuff like this is the reason people say
fact is stranger than fiction. Fiction
has to make sense. Reality doesn’t have
to do shit.”
-Tucker
Max, Hilarity Ensues
Sometimes
it takes genuine injustice to put things in perspective. I was recently
reminded of this during my clash with a prominent floral service that failed to
deliver a chocolates order on Valentine’s Day… and the next day… and the next
day… and as I write this opening paragraph. Nobody likes having their money
held hostage. But, again, perspective has humbled my rage about the incident.
So
begins the story of Marine Staff Sergeant Brandon Parsons and his role in one
of the most baffling legal debacles in the history paternity cases.
A
Superior Court of California judge has recently ruled that SSgt Parsons, a
combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, must continue to pay child support
another twelve years for a child that ISN’T his—a payment that, counting the
$50,000 he’s already remunerated his ex-wife, Crystal Parson, will put him on
pace to pay over $250,000 before his legal obligation ends (twelve years from
now), according to his lawyer. This payment, broken down, takes up
approximately one-third of his current salary.
The
judge, having made the decision because of a loophole in the events leading up
to the ruling, didn’t hold back in his disdain for Parsons’ ex-wife’s actions.
The first sentence in the second paragraph of the court’s ruling says it all:
While
the court concludes that father was, in fact, despicably duped and victimized
by Petitioner Crystal Parsons’s (hereinafter “Mother”) fraudulent concealment
regarding biological paternity, a deception which has placed a significant,
continuing financial burden upon Father, existing law, as applied to the facts
of this case, precludes the court from setting aside the prior paternity
determination or ordering genetic blood testing.
So
how did this apparent calamity of justice happen? Here’s the gist:
After
completing his first combat deployment in the Spring of 2005—of which he spent
the majority of time fighting in Ramadi, Iraq—SSgt Parsons, then a twenty-year
old corporal, returned to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and immediately
began a sexual relationship with his then-fiancé, Crystal Domenech. Their first
sexual encounter was, according to court documents, on April 5, 2005.
Seventeen
days later, Crystal announced to Brandon that she was pregnant. Brandon, without
questioning any aspects of her statement or the legitimacy of his biological
paternity, decided to bump up their scheduled nuptials and spent the majority
of his money (an estimated $20,000)—of which most came from his recent
deployment—on her dream wedding.
What
both Brandon and the court now know is that Crystal Domenech Parsons had been
engaged in numerous sexual affairs while he was on deployment and,
consequently, the child that Brandon raised—under the assumption he was
legitimately the father—was indeed that of another man. (Crystal Parsons
refuses to name the true identity of the biological father to this day.)
Moreover, it was both alleged by Parsons and believed by the court that Crystal
chose to sleep with then-Corporal Parsons purely to cover up her previous
sexual encounters and pin the pregnancy on him, therefore having access to his
military benefits.
It
was after the end of Parsons’ second deployment to Iraq that Crystal Parsons,
who continued to engage in extramarital affairs during his absence, made it
clear she wanted a divorce—only after emptying his bank account and paying her
personal bills in his name.
SSgt
Parsons’ first inkling that he was not the biological father, brought to his
attention by a former friend of Crystal, occurred in April of 2010, less than a
year after their divorce. Within the month, Parsons had confirmed through an
over-the-counter test by Identigene that the child he had been raising for four
and a half years was not his.
“The
worst part of being a paternity fraud victim is that nobody can help you,” SSgt
Parsons told me in a recent phone interview. “When a guy is dealing with a break
up, his buddy can say, ‘Dude, I’ve been there.’ Nobody knows what to say in
that kind of situation. I broke down and the Marines around me just stood
there.”
SSgt
Parsons confronted his ex-wife soon after that. This is the exchange, according
to Brandon Parsons, in his official court declaration:
After
she had read the result I asked her to tell me the truth. She then began
telling me that while I was in Iraq she had been raped. I told her that I did
not believe her and to start telling me the truth for [Child’s name – Redacted]
sake. I asked her how many men she had slept with while I was on deployment.
When she did not answer at first I asked her if it had been more than 2 men and
she nodded her head indicating “yes.” I asked her if it was more than 5 and
again she nodded her head indicating “yes.” I asked if it was more than 7 men
she had slept with. This time she screamed at me that she did not know how
many. After she calmed down she told me that in March 2005 [a month before his
return] she discovered she was pregnant and told her mother. She said that her
mother told her that military spouse benefits were excellent and she should
remember that she did not have insurance coverage for the hospital bills.
(It
should be noted that, by all accounts, while Parsons lost the aforementioned
legal case, the court never denied the plausibility of Parsons’ report of the
events. In fact, the judge made it more than clear that Brandon Parsons’ side
of the story was the most credible and that Crystal Parsons had acted
“despicably” leading up to the ruling.)
After
this exchange, Parsons convinced his ex to meet him for another DNA test, along
with the child.
He
continues in his statement:
When
they came into the waiting room [Child’s name—Redacted] came over to me and was
talking to me when Crystal’s mother came and grabbed him and pulled him away
telling him not to talk to me because I was a stranger now. She also began
calling me names. I asked her to please stop cursing at me before the child.
This made her really angry and she looked right in my eyes and told me that I
should have died in Iraq like I was supposed to do.
Parsons
was unable to obtain a DNA test that day due to the vitriolic nature of Crystal
and her mother, opting to leave after the two women threatened to call the
police on him.
So
why, after the court has concluded that Parsons’ description of the events is
more grounded than his ex’s and his prior over-the-counter test is admissible
as legitimate proof that he is not the father, does he still have to pay child
support for a child that isn’t his? The answer—in all the convoluted facets of
the case—is simple: timing.
He
did not file a complaint against Crystal Parsons until early-December of
2012—more than two and half years after he discovered he was not the father of
the child.
The
court’s explanation:
Even
if the fraud ground of Family Code section 2122(a) applied, Father’s set aside
motion is untimely since such a motion must be brought “within one year after
the date on which the complaining party either did discover, or should have
discovered, the fraud.” Father’s discovery of the fraud occurred in April of
2010, i.e., a date more than 2 ½ years ago.
In
laymen’s terms: he was too late. This is the loophole that Crystal Domenech Parsons
won the ruling by—resulting in the court ordering SSgt Brandon Parsons to pay
another twelve years of child support for a child that he now has no access to.
This
is where things get really enraging: Crystal Parsons has recently filed a
motion asking the court to order SSgt Parsons to pay $8,535 (on top of his
ongoing child support) for the lawyer she hired to defend the mess she created
in the first place. Additionally, on a more egregious level, the child—who
Brandon Parsons adamantly maintains is the “biggest loser in all of
this”—suffers from chronic hereditary illnesses that neither him or Crystal
Parsons have. Her refusal and/or inability to name the biological father has
greatly inhibited the child from getting the proper care he deserves.
(Folks,
in my humble opinion, Crystal Parsons is the living, breathing, real life
bastard child of Snidely Whiplash and… Satan—who is possibly her mother.)
But
Parsons, who has since been remarried, isn’t deterred. He says he’s going to
fight it.
“If
we [Marines] can take Iwo Jima, I can win this case,” he told me. “I want to
win this for every Marine—for every man—who gets screwed like this.”
My
initial impression of SSgt Parsons after our three hour conversation is that
he’s an extremely optimistic individual with a cheerful demeanor—exactly what
I’d expect from a Minnesotan who grew up a stone’s throw from the Canadian
border.
Even
after the disheartening outcome of his case, he continues to see the best in
most people involved.
“The
judge did a good job,” he said. “I could tell he did everything he could to get
me out of this. He had his hands tied.”
“My
attorney, Mr. Richard Lowe, was the only attorney in Southern California that
even remotely had an idea as to how we should approach this problem and solve
it,” he wrote me in an email after our conversation. “He’s an excellent
attorney and an even better friend. He deserves praise and is helping several
other paternity fraud victims as we speak.”
It’s
hard to get angry about my twenty dollars at this point. (For the record, as I
finish this story, I just received an email from the company, promising me a
full refund.) Besides, there are certainly bigger travesties in America right
now… as the case of SSgt Brandon Parsons has proved.
Editor’s
Note: All information and court transcripts contained in this piece were
obtained and verified through open source information available on the internet
at the time of publishing. -RU Rob, Lord Commander and Regent of Ye Olde Rhino
Den.
***** Related Article *****
Young
Marine Must Continue To Pay Child Support for a Child That Is Not His
Brandon
Parsons is a young Marine who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. On January 22,
2013, San Diego Superior Court Judge Gregory Pollack ruled that Brandon Parsons
will have to continue paying child support for another twelve years for another
man’s child.
His
reason is that Brandon Parsons did not file his request for an order for DNA
paternity testing of the child, Ashton Parsons, and the mother, Crystal
Parsons, until two years after the child’s birth. Because of this delay,
Brandon will have to continue paying child support for another twelve years for
another man’s child.
Brandon
is currently required to pay $1,377 per month, approximately one-third of his
income, for a total of $16,524 per year. To date, he has paid over $50,000 to
support Ashton and is on pace to pay over $250,000 before his obligation ends.
The
Court found Crystal Parsons’ testimony to be totally untrustworthy. It called
her actions in deliberately lying to Brandon about being the father of the
child “despicable.” In his written opinion, Judge Pollack states his views as
follows: “The court denies the motions of Respondent Brandon Parsons to set
aside Judgment and order blood testing to determine paternity. The motions are
statutorily untimely under Family Code Section 2122, 7646,7541 and C.C.P.
Section 473. The Paternity determination set forth within the 2009 martial
dissolution judgment stipulated to by father, is res judicata and not subject
to an equitable set aside.”
