Lee County Sheriff Marceno responds to paternity court battle

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Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, left, and Deanna Williams, right.

The Lee County Sheriff responded Friday to a paternity suit filed against him.

The suit itself has already gotten a lot of attention, but WINK News now has Sheriff Carmine Marceno’s official response.

Marceno’s official court response says he wants a DNA test to prove it’s his child. He also says he wants shared custody if the child is his.

The baby’s mother, Deanna Williams, says that’s a very different response than she got when she told then-undersheriff Marceno she was pregnant over the summer.

Williams said it was hard to tell him and, “His reaction was to… Suggest that we talk about options.”

Text messages Williams showed us between her and Marceno shows the relationship between the two quickly fell apart after the pregnancy.

Marceno clearly sent text messages stating he didn’t want a child.

“The only problem was… the only option he would speak about… was abortion,” Williams claimed, adding that it’s not something she could fathom.

We asked Williams if Marceno flat out asked her to have an abortion. She said, “He did. He told me there was no other option. There was no other moral choice.”

That’s when Williams decided to sue, asking for sole custody and child support in hopes to raise the child with some privacy.

She added that she, “want[s] it to still be an intimate thing. Like having a baby should be.”

We asked the sheriff’s office and attorney’s for both side for comment.

The sheriff’s office said they won’t comment since it’s a personal matter and neither the sheriff nor lawyers for either side had anything to say.

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