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LI Man Sues Fertility Clinic After He Discovers Accidental Pregnancy Wasn't So Accidental

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Joe Pressil (via)
Accidents will happen, but not all accidents are actually accidents: a Long Island man is suing the fertility clinic which he claims his ex-girlfriend used to store his "stolen" sperm. Joseph Pressil, 36, says his ex Anetria Burnett used the stolen sperm to get herself pregnant after they broke up, and then sued him for child support. “A gold digger is an understatement. She was trying to get community property and alimony. She’s ruthless...This is more than a nightmare—it’s a horror story," Pressil told the Post.

According to ABC, Pressil says he and Burnett, an exotic dancer, only dated for six months when he was living in Texas in 2006. Pressil, a telecommunications manager, was surprised when she informed him she was pregnant with twins after they had broken up: “We always used condoms,” he noted. But when a DNA test proved he was definitely the father, Pressil said he began paying $800 a month in child support: “At first, I doubted [the children were mine], but I figured I would wait until the twins were born. But when the kids were born, they looked just like me.”

Pressil then received a strange receipt in the mail for sperm cryopreservation from the Advanced Fertility Center of Texas. That's where he discovered Burnett had been taking his sperm: "She was taking [the semen in condoms] after the fact and running down to the clinic with it,” said Jason Gibson, who is representing Pressil in the lawsuit. Pressil confronted his ex, who according to him said, "Oh you're not stupid. I thought you knew."

Gibson calls it a case of theft: "If they've got him listed as a patient they need his consent to do anything. They violated their own policies and procedures by not getting that consent." Pressil currently has joint custody with Burnett, but plans to fight for full custody now "because of all her scandalous ways."

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Comments [rss]

  • ivf

    IVF clinics are mushrooming in most places on the planet declaring to offer top category therapy.

  • NotTheJediYoureLookingFor

    What questions were explained? I asked why any woman would do this. Apparently it's self-evident to you -- talk about assuming -- but not to me.  If Pressil only got charged $800/mo for child support, that means he doesn't make much money.  And they were only together 6 months, so community property and alimony wouldn't have amounted to much. The Post article says she already got turned down for her claim on the house. (Understandable; if it was that easy to get community property, nobody would ever get married.) So please, tell me where the article indicates that a few hundred more per month would make the cost of pregnancy and delivery and raising two children alone, plus the life-threatening danger of a pregnancy at her age, worthwhile? I love kids, don't get me wrong, but most studies suggest it costs over $200K to raise just one, and that's if you stop at 18 and don't send 'em to college. Pressil's paying less than that ($800/mo x 12 mos/yr x 18 yrs), and she's got two.  If this was some effort on her part to get back at him, it's vengeance that's going to hurt her a lot more than him.

    These aren't assumptions. This is basic math. And the numbers aren't adding up in a way that makes sense.  I could see it if the guy was *rich*, but he's obviously not -- or the child support payment would've been much higher.

    I also asked how close the clinic was. You see that somewhere?

  • NotTheJediYoureLookingFor

    I call BS. Most condoms have spermicide, and even when they don't that stuff doesn't live long outside of a human body. Was the clinic next door? You can't just toss it in an apartment freezer; that'll kill it.  It has to be captured pretty quickly even at a clinic or it's useless.  And why would any woman do this? It's not like child support actually covers the cost of raising a child.  Never understood this whole "women are child-support-hungry manstalkers" persecution fantasy that some men have.  Who would risk her life having a baby, and put herself in hock for 18+ years, just for $800/month? Daycare alone averages $972/month in the US.  This whole story defies both basic science and common sense.

    Occam's Razor suggests the simplest explanation: he slept with his girlfriend after they broke up. He's lying when he says he always used a condom. And if he loses this lawsuit I imagine it'll be something else... his lawyers colluded with the clinic! The judge got IVF once and all those women are in cahoots! Aliens stole his DNA and the baby is a clone!

  • does Occam's Razor say anything about how you should read the damned article before commenting?  Most of your questions are explained if you just make the effort to read instead of assuming a bunch of erroneous shit.

  • Actually it'll stay viable for about 3-4 hours after ejaculation if it's not in a woman and 3-7 days if it is in a woman.

  • 1142guest

    Good for him for stepping up and taking responsibility for the kids.  It's nice to see that he's not trying to cut them off, just their deceitful, unbalanced mother.

  • I don't see a stripper doing this to a broke guy, brother must have had some bucks she wanted a chunk of.

  • "how was you'r day Mark?". 
     "Good Jhon I helped a lady."
     "How".  "Well she came in and must have been in a horrible crash cause she basically had undies on then she said her and her poor bed ridden husband were trying to have a baby and she had to bring his sperm in a condom cause you see they were'nt married yet so they couldn't have sex without a condom till then or it wouldn't be holy......." 
     "uh Mark..."  
     "Wait .....then when I thought all was lost because that batch was not useable she brought it in again and again untill finnaly there was good sperm....weird how she kept forgetting to put on more clothes.."   
     "MARK..." 
     "Oh but then again she was probably to busy getting his signature for me cause his arms must have been bedridden too...what were you saying Jhon?"     "yeah Mark you're probably going to get fired."   "OH don't worry Jhon she called and said she finnally got pregnant so i'm sure I did a good job."     "umm yeah Mark you sure did."

  • "Let me throw that away for you"

  • However the legal wrangling turns out I hope the kids don't become the real victims here

  • Fofofofofo

    Seems to me like it would be a lot less effort to get educated and get yourself a good job so you can buy nice things for yourself and have children on your own terms. Maybe I took the long road.

  • birdtird

    I can't believe a stripper would do something like this

  • the stripper is obviously a piece of trash, but trash will be trash.  The major issue here is the clinic.   It appears as if they stored and used this man's sperm with nothing more than a forged signature and an assumption.   That is an insane breach of responsibility.

  • Apparently you didn't get the joke of birdtird... but true statement :)

  • I did get the joke... it was just a comment along the same lines.   Get it?

    yes birdtird is saying that a stripper will predictably act like trash, etc. etc. etc. blah blah blah....  haha funny

    But, additionally, I'm making a comment about the clinic.

  • If this man's story is true, he deserves to win BIG TIME.   The failings of the clinic are OUTRAGEOUS.

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