Falsely signing a birth certificate

My fiance is going to court for custody of his daughter. When he met his Daughter's mother, she was already pregnant. He stayed with her, and when her child was born, he signed the birth certificate and they were a family, and she became pregnant with the child they now share.

Well now, they are having a custody battle for his biological daughter. But the judge said that they both committed a class E felony with the first child by signing the birth certificate knowing she wasn't his biological child.

What does this mean, and what do you think could happen? Is there anything they can do to fix this or at least fight it? He was only trying to do a good thing, and now it's a mess... HELP!!!

Can't anyone help me???

Was he married at the time?

No, he was never married

[randalljd]

He could petition to adopt if the judge is so concerned.

Or just ask the judge to ratify and confirm notwithstanding what was done.

Is there any other father out there that is claiming rights?

I would think the prosecutor may not be interested here.

the problem with that is, the judge comes from a Criminal background... It's a small town in upstate New York (Plattsburgh) so that's kind of against him. They are real sticklers over there for pressing issues of the law. So we really need advice on how to fight it because so far, it doesn't look like it can be avoided.

...I would suggest you then also involve a criminal law lawyer to work with your family law situation...if criminal charges really are going to be filed.

It all seems resolvable with some reasonableness, but yes judges can be tough on those kinds of situations.