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Deported German returns to US to keep paternity claim alive The Associated Press Published: October 25, 2006 MORGANTOWN, West Virginia A German man who fought for a decade to prove he is a son of a former state legislator has returned to West Virginia for yet another courtroom battle. Franz Anthoefer re-entered the United States on Tuesday for the first time since being deported on June 2, 1997, the day before voters in Weston, West Virginia, were to decide whether to elect him mayor. Anthoefer and his mother, Babette, are scheduled to appear Thursday in Weston before Family Court Judge Robert Sowa. Anthoefer said he is hopeful the judge will finally recognize him as the son of the late Louis G. Craig, a former Weston mayor and state legislator, so he can gain U.S. citizenship. Anthoefer, 55, claims Craig had an affair with his mother while in Rastatt, Germany, in 1950. A German court has recognized Craig as his father, but Anthoefer wants similar recognition from the United States. Disputed DNA tests conducted nearly 10 years ago found a 99.93 percent match between the two men. Anthoefer's latest court filing in Lewis County argues the United States enacted an unconstitutional policy in 1950, making it illegal for German authorities to establish paternity in cases involving U.S. servicemen. "The federal government was protecting its citizens from any claims that might be resulting out of being the genitor of a child," his motion says. Most societies agree that fathers should be held responsible for their offspring, Anthoefer argues, and the unilateral U.S. policy violates both his constitutional and human rights. Attorney R. Russell Stobbs has asked that the case be dismissed, arguing that too much time has passed to make a claim. Stobbs did not return a telephone message from The Associated Press. Craig left Germany soon after Anthoefer was born Feb. 20, 1951. Anthoefer began searching for Craig in 1971, eventually tracking him to Weston and traveling there to meet him, only to learn Craig had died weeks earlier. Anthoefer received permission from a West Virginia circuit judge to have Craig's body exhumed in 1996 for the DNA tests, which were conducted at Brigham Young University. Anthoefer was so eager to follow in Craig's footsteps that he ran for mayor of Weston in 1997 under the name Louis Craig Jr., but was deported on the eve of the election for being in the country illegally. Anthoefer, a former cargo pilot and flight instructor, is now a full-time caregiver for his 86-year-old mother, who lives with him in Bonn. Last year, Anthoefer was denied a U.S. passport by officials who said they wanted another DNA test because the first was not done by "an acceptable DNA testing facility." Anthoefer, however, refused to seek another exhumation and traveled to Washington, D.C., this week on his German passport. |