Former Green Beret Elmo Jones served for 21 hard years, including during the Gulf War, but Veterans Affairs is not on his side during the hardest fight of his life: a battle to be free from paying his ex-wife child support for a son who doesn’t belong to him.
In his divorce, Jones learned through a DNA test that the five-year-old boy he believed they had together wasn’t actually his.
“It comes back the child is not mine. So it’s pretty hard,” a tearful Jones told Fox News Denver Jan. 3.
Now, having lost his family, Jones is losing his pension too. Though the results of the DNA test led the local county court to deny his ex-wife child support, the VA is still deducting a substantial amount of money from his retirement every month.
“I get a letter from them about some child not living with me. And they are going to start taking $1,300 out of my pay,” Jones said. “I feel betrayed because those people are supposed to be on my side.”
Jones attempted to fax over the results of the paternity test; however, the VA still deducted the money in December.
“I called them at least 15 times,” he said. “They won’t talk to me.”
The FOX31 Problem Solvers reached out on his behalf as well, but did not receive a response.
The VA reportedly said that once Jones provides adequate proof he is not the child’s father, it will reimburse him. But for now, his reduced income has left him residing in an extended-stay hotel with very little left over for any other living expenses.
“What is in question here is if the child belongs to me or not. And that’s already been determined by a court of law. The child is not mine,” he said.
See the Fox News Denver report below.