## Facts

- Robert LeClair, age 37, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting Rose Reed, age 15, in violation of Vermont’s statutory sexual-assault law.
- A child was conceived from the sexual assault.
- LeClair filed a family court action seeking to establish parentage and obtain parental rights and responsibilities, parent–child contact, and to pay child support.
- LeClair voluntarily dismissed the action, then later moved to reopen it, asserting his treatment program would allow supervised contact.
- Cheryl Reed, on behalf of the minor mother and child, opposed reopening and moved to dismiss, arguing LeClair lacked standing because the child was conceived through a criminal sexual assault.
- The family court reopened the case but dismissed it on public-policy grounds, reasoning the parentage process should not allow a perpetrator to benefit from the crime or revictimize the victim when the mother opposed adjudicating him a parent.
- LeClair appealed from the dismissal.

## Issues

1. Whether Vermont’s Parentage Proceedings Act (15 V.S.A. § 302) grants standing to “any person alleging himself to be the natural father,” including a man who claims fatherhood of a child conceived through his statutory sexual assault of the mother.
2. Whether the family court could dismiss the parentage action on public-policy grounds without an evidentiary hearing and factual findings addressing the statutory framework and the child’s best interests.

## Decision

- The Vermont Supreme Court reversed the dismissal and remanded.
- The court held that the plain language of 15 V.S.A. § 302 conferred standing on LeClair as a person alleging he is the child’s natural father.
- The court rejected a categorical public-policy bar to such actions where the statute contains no exception based on the manner of conception.
- The court ruled the trial court erred by resolving contested matters and terminating the case without developing a factual record and conducting the required best-interests inquiry.
- The court stated it expressed no view on whether LeClair should receive custody or contact; only that the case could not be dismissed at the threshold.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory standing is governed by the text; when a parentage statute grants standing to “any person” alleging natural fatherhood, courts may not create extra-statutory categorical exclusions absent legislative direction.
- Parentage, custody, and contact determinations must be decided under the governing statutory scheme and the child’s best interests, not solely as a sanction for parental misconduct.
- Public-policy concerns, even when substantial, do not justify dismissal where the statute calls for individualized adjudication and the record is insufficient to assess disputed facts and the child’s welfare.
- A trial court generally must develop an evidentiary record and make findings before deciding parentage-related rights and contact.

## Conclusion

The Vermont Supreme Court held that a man who alleges he is a child’s biological father has statutory standing to bring a parentage action even if the child was conceived through his criminal sexual assault of the mother, and that the family court improperly dismissed the action on categorical public-policy grounds without a factual record and best-interests analysis.


LeClair v. Reed ex rel. Reed, 939 A.2d 466 (Vt. 2007)