Elmont man claims ex stole sperm

    Elmont resident Joseph Pressil, 36, wasn’t prepared for fatherhood when he met Anetria Burnett, 34, while working in Texas in 2007. Three months after their six-month-long relationship ended, he was shocked when Burnett told him that she was pregnant with twins — and he was the father.

    After four years of monthly $800 child-support payments and regular visits to see his now-4-year-old boys, however, Pressil was even more shocked when he discovered that Burnett had allegedly stored his sperm for in vitro fertilization without his knowledge, resulting in her pregnancy.

   According to Pressil’s attorney, Jason Gibson of Houston, Pressil discovered last February that Burnett had been receiving in vitro treatments, when he was accidentally mailed a receipt for sperm cryopreservation. The receipt indicated that she was in the clinic last February, attempting to store semen for a year.

    For months, Gibson said, Pressil attempted to contact the fertility clinic for information, first through the company that had sent him the paperwork, Omni-Med Laboratory, which pointed him to the Advanced Fertility Center of Texas. When Advanced Fertility asked him to sign a release form regarding the storage of his sperm, Pressil realized that Burnett had been storing condoms of his semen for fertilization at a later date, Gibson said.

    He added that he believes Burnett stored semen and received in vitro treatments several times while she was seeing Pressil.

    Pressil recently filed a lawsuit against Advanced Fertility, alleging that the center did not follow the legal procedures for in vitro fertilization, according to the Texas Uniform Parentage Act, which requires in-record consent from both potential parents before in vitro treatments can occur.