Maryland mayor mistaken named in paternity case

Ronald M. Shane has lived in Maryland all his life and has never been to Oklahoma. <br><br>So imagine his surprise to learn that he was named - mistakenly - as a defendant in a paternity case in Tulsa

Sunday, April 7th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Ronald M. Shane has lived in Maryland all his life and has never been to Oklahoma.

So imagine his surprise to learn that he was named - mistakenly - as a defendant in a paternity case in Tulsa County District Court.

``I keep kidding with people that I owe them a cigar because the state of Oklahoma made me a father, but, really, it's not a funny situation,'' Shane said.

Officials were actually looking for Ronnie Shane, who is 30 years younger than Ronald M. Shane, the 54-year-old mayor of Berwyn Heights, a Washington, D.C., suburb. They were searching for Ronnie L. Shane, who was the possible father of a young boy whom prosecutors were trying to declare a ward of the state.

Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris admitted to the Tulsa World that a mistake had been made.

``It's like the tar baby,'' Harris said. ``Every time we tried to correct it, we got ourselves in even deeper.''

Shane was contacted in August by the Department of Human Services' Child Protective Services unit, and asked whether he was Ronnie Shane.

``I told her that no one had called me `Ronnie' in years but that I was Ron Shane,'' he said. ``I asked why, and she said it concerned a paternity suit. I asked if I was a witness or something, and she said I was a defendant.''

Shane has been married for seven years and has a stepson.

``I told the lady that she absolutely had the wrong guy and that she had better check her information.''

Shane said he and the woman ended the call on a friendly note and he figured that was the end of it. But deputies from his local Sheriff's Office arrived Sept. 12 with a summons ordering him to appear in Tulsa County District Court the next morning for the paternity case.

``My wife (Mary) was understandably alarmed, and so was I,'' he said.

All flights were grounded due to the previous day's terrorist attacks, Shane said, so he figured he couldn't be expected to drop everything and appear in Tulsa in less than 24 hours.

``I decided to go to my local Police Department to get some help,'' he said.

Berwyn Heights Police Chief Patrick Murphy called the Tulsa County District Attorney's office and spoke to Rebecca Nightingale of the Juvenile Bureau.

``I told her that this appeared to be a case of mistaken identity,'' Murphy wrote in a subsequent letter to Harris' office.

Murphy said Nightingale declined his offer to provide Shane's driver's license and picture and to have any medical testing done but promised to investigate the situation.

Shane retained a Tulsa attorney Frank Suraci, who appeared on Shane's behalf in court in October. Suraci forwarded the driver's license information and photo of his client to prosecutors, who learned they had the wrong man.

But the judge dismissed Ronnie L. Shane from the case, not Ronald M. Shane. Technically, the mayor was still on the hook and still listed in court documents as the father.

``I'd provided them with all the information that they needed, and they still screwed it up. I was now listed not only as this child's father - I was an unfit father at that,'' Shane said.

Harris said the mistakes on the court documents were ``unfortunate clerical errors.''

Shane, meanwhile, had spent $800 in attorney's fees, run up long-distance phone bills and spent the night in the emergency room because of stress-related chest pains.

Since prosecutors cannot be held liable for such expenses if they were acting in good faith while performing their duties, Shane can't recover his losses from them.

Harris amended the paternity documents Thursday, supposedly erasing Shane from the records. Harris also personally called Shane to apologize.

``I told him man-to-man that I was sorry for what had happened,'' Harris said. ``I realize the embarrassment that this may have caused him and his family, and I've done everything I can to rectify the situation.''

Harris said prosecutors are reliant on the information provided to them by DHS investigators.

Tulsa County DHS Director Bob Plank would not specifically discuss what happened to Shane but said investigators go through a rigorous process with checks and balances to identify the right people in paternity cases.

Although Shane said he has considered a federal lawsuit on civil rights grounds, he doesn't know whether he will pursue it.

``I've been cleared, so I suppose I've gotten what I've been after all along,'' he said.