Judge denies biological dad's claim to $837,000 settlement over son's death

A judge has ruled it would be a "gross miscarriage of justice" to give a man who abandoned his child at age 5 half of an $837,000 settlement over the son's wrongful death 20 years later.

Milwaukee County agreed in January to pay $1.4 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit by the mother of Brandon Johnson, who died at the Mental Health Complex in 2012.

Johnson, 25, had no spouse or children and no will. By law, his estate would normally pass to his parents in an even split. But his mother, Alicia Johnson, 48, suggested in court papers that his father, Marcus Crumble, 53, of California, doesn't deserve a cent because he raped her when she was 15 and never helped raise Brandon, who was born as a result of the attack.

On Wednesday, Circuit Judge David Borowski agreed.

"The Court has seen far too many absent fathers in this community. Out of wedlock births, where a 'father' both literally and figuratively abandons a child are a scourge," he wrote.

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2018/08/16/judge-denies-biological-dads-claim-837-000-settlement-over-son/1002941002/