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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Service With a Sneaky Smile

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (CN) - A Charleston man claims in court that a bank teller wormed confidential information out of him and used it to try to make him pay child support for a teenager who isn't his.

John C. Carney sued Wesbanco Bank and Shawnetta A. Whittington, in Kanawha County Court.

Carney claims the saga began after he deposited $25,000 into his checking account in June 2011. Three weeks later, when he returned to the bank's South Hills branch to make a withdrawal, Whittington waited on him.

"Whittington asked the plaintiff a number of personal questions, including inquiries about plaintiff's Social Security number, account number, personal and social interactions, and other personal, confidential information," the complaint states. "Defendant appeared to be taking notes of plaintiff's responses."

Imagine his surprise when "Approximately two to three weeks later, plaintiff received a letter from West Virginia's Bureau for Child Support Enforcement stating that he had been enrolled in the child support program as the father of an approximately 18-year-old child by an unnamed woman who claimed the plaintiff was the father of her child," the complaint states.

"Plaintiff was further informed that the woman falsely represented that the plaintiff had voluntarily agreed to pay child support. The woman used personal, confidential information about the plaintiff to make this claim."

Carney says he went to the Child Support Enforcement offices in July "and was advised to have a DNA test run to determine whether plaintiff was the father of the aforesaid child. Around this time, it was revealed that the unnamed woman was the defendant Whittington."

Carney says he took the DNA test, and that "By letter dated August 10, 2011, from the BCSE, plaintiff was informed that the tests revealed the probability of his paternity was 0.00 percent."

Carney seeks damages for defamation, privacy invasion, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and breach of fiduciary duty.

He is represented by Frank Venezia with Shaffer & Shaffer in Madison, W. Va.

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