People

Michael Jordan targeted in Ga. paternity suit

Category: People Published on Monday, 04 March 2013 07:00 Written by Associated Press Hits: 950

FACING PATERNITY SUIT--Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan looks on from courtside during an NBA basketball game between the Charlotte Bobcats and the Atlanta Hawks in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

by Phillip Lucas

ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta woman has filed a lawsuit saying basketball Hall of Famer and Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan is the father of her 16-year-old son.

The lawsuit was filed Feb. 6 by Pamela Y. Smith, 48, in Fulton County Superior Court. It requests Jordan take a paternity test, pay child support and share medical, dental and hospital costs that are not covered by insurance.

Publicist Estee Portnoy said Jordan has no comment, and calls to several numbers listed for Smith were not returned Friday afternoon.

The lawsuit also requests the boy's last name be changed to Jordan, and for a judge to order the Georgia Department of Vital Records to issue him a new birth certificate.

Part of the lawsuit requests that any hearing or trial be conducted in closed court to protect the teen's privacy. However, Smith's publicist acknowledged that the teen posted a video to YouTube on Dec. 25, saying Jordan is his father and that he wants him to play a larger role in his life.

"Pamela had no choice but to support her son and his desire to forge a relationship with his father," Smith's publicist, April Love, said in a statement Friday. "That's why she is now speaking out and prompting Michael to do the right thing." Love says Smith and Jordan met in Chicago in the late 1980s.

According to court documents, Smith does not have an attorney and a court date is scheduled for March 12.