Wharton grad student settles suit

Wharton graduate student John Knight, who claims his ex-wife and in-laws tricked him into marriage, settled a federal lawsuit against them Monday for an undisclosed amount of money. Knight accused Mary Rourke and her parents of fraud and misrepresentation, according to court papers. He had sought $100,000 in damages. He said Rourke lied when she told him he had fathered her child, convincing him to marry her. He also said she and her parents withheld the father's true identity for three years. Terms of the settlement were confidential, according to Norman Perlberger, Knight's attorney. But he added that Knight was pleased with the outcome. ''I think it's a groundbreaking case,'' said Perlberger. ''It calls for the possibility of claims like this, not just in paternity, but in other aspects of human relations.'' He added that he case was settled out of court because "Knight really didn't want it to become a media circus." Attorneys for Rourke and her parents were unavailable for comment. Knight began dating Rourke in December 1988, when he was a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. She told him she was pregnant with his baby in August 1989 and gave birth to Micaeli in May 1990 -- the same month Knight graduated. The couple was married a month later, according to court papers. In 1992, Rourke took Micaeli and moved out of the house, telling her husband that she was having an extramarital affair, according to the lawsuit. Knight instituted divorce proceedings after that, attempting to gain custody of Micaeli. But he didn't find out until June 1993 that the young girl had been fathered by someone else -- a college friend of Rourke's, according to the lawsuit. And he learned just prior to a custody hearing. The lawsuit contends that Rourke and her parents knew all along that the child was not Knight's. But Rourke replied in court papers that she firmly believed the child was Knight's until the summer of 1993, when DNA blood test results virtually excluded him as the father. Knight's lawsuit sought to recover money he had spent on the marriage, along with lost income from a career change that he said he made at his wife's strong urging.

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