Last week, we told you about how a woman named Pamela Smithfiled a lawsuit against Michael Jordan in the state of Georgia recently, claiming that he in the father of her 16-year-old son Taj. In the lawsuit, she asked for MJ to take a paternity test to prove that he's the father and to start paying child support if the test proves that he is, in fact, Taj's dad. However, MJ and his legal team fired back at Smith earlier today when they asked for the lawsuit to be thrown out because—get this—the paternity of Taj was already revealed in the same court system in Georgia about a decade ago. MJ's lawyer found an old divorce court filing from 2003 that says that Taj is the son of Smith's ex-husband Glenville G. Reynolds and that Smith signed a document confirming that to be true.
"Public records show that the paternity of the child was established in a prior case in the same court many years ago and that Michael Jordan is not the father," MJ's spokeswoman Estee Portnoy said in a statement early Monday. "He also filed a counterclaim seeking sanctions for the false claims made against him. It is unfortunate that well-known figures are the target of these kinds of claims. Michael Jordan will vigorously defend himself and his reputation."
So, what comes next? Well, we'll just have to wait and see what the court decides. The 2003 document doesn't definitively prove that Taj is not MJ's child. But, it does give MJ a legal advantage over the claims made by Smith. Stay tuned.
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[via AP]
