Unwitting sperm donor

[4honor]

'Unwitting sperm donor'
Caddie: LPGA player seduced him to get pregnant

Posted: Friday April 29, 2005 7:36PM; Updated: Friday April 29, 2005 8:14PM
                   
 
Jackie Gallagher-Smith gave birth last month and has not played on tour this year.
AP MIAMI (AP) -- A former caddie for LPGA golfer Jackie Gallagher-Smith is suing her, saying she seduced him in order to get pregnant.

Gary Robinson says Gallagher-Smith, who is married, used him as "an unwitting sperm donor." He is suing for an unspecified sum, claiming fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress. No hearing date has been set for the suit, filed in circuit court this week in West Palm Beach.

A message for Gallagher-Smith's attorney, Edwin Belz, was not immediately returned.

Earlier, he told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the suit was, "an attempt at extortion."

The suit says Gallagher-Smith, 37, gave birth last month, but Florida law says a child born into a marriage is deemed to be a result of the marriage. A DNA test can't be forced and Robinson has no legal claim to the child, said Cathy Lively, Robinson's attorney.

"That is why we are seeking damages; he's not going to be able to ask for a DNA test," Lively said. "It is our claim that he was put into a position, and this was an intentional act to father a child. He was led to believe at that point that the child was his.

"He was put into the position of being an unwitting sperm donor."

Robinson said he has been affected professionally. He is currently out of work as a caddie and is pursuing a career as a professional golfer.

"The likelihood that I will ever get another caddying job, especially in the LPGA, is very, very unlikely," he said.

Robinson, 26, began caddying for Gallagher-Smith in February 2004, and soon thereafter began receiving advances from her, he said. Robinson said he was in an emotional state after recently ending a long-term relationship with a girlfriend, and he passed off some early advances as "innocent playful activity."

The relationship became sexual about two months later and the two would sometimes engage in unprotected sex, he said. When rumors of the relationship began spreading around the tour, Gallagher-Smith told Robinson that he must deny they had anything but a work relationship, the suit states.

Robinson goes on to say that Gallagher-Smith told him she and her husband had been unsuccessful in conceiving a child. In July, she told Robinson she was pregnant and led him to believe he might be the father, the suit says.

Under pressure from Robinson, Gallagher-Smith eventually told her husband and said he forgave them, and Robinson continued to caddie for Gallagher-Smith through the end of the tour season in October, Robinson said.

"I hope to get retribution for the emotional pain and suffering and eventually get some rights to the child," Robinson said. "The laws in Florida are very tough with the situation I'm in but this suit is about financial retribution."

An 11-year tour veteran, Gallagher-Smith has one career victory and career earnings of about $1.1 million. She has not played in a tour event this year.

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