A lawyer for Dirk Nowitzki said he doubted a woman’s claim that she is pregnant with the Dallas Mavericks star’s baby.
Christal Taylor, 37, told the Dallas Morning News in an interview from jail this week that Nowitzki was her fiance and that she learned she was pregnant after she was arrested at his house on a probation violation and theft of services warrants.
Robert Hart, Nowitzki’s Dallas-based lawyer, said in a statement released to ESPN.com on Thursday: “If in the remote instance there is any validity to this woman’s claim of pregnancy, Dirk will do whatever can be done to ensure the well-being of the child.”
PHOTO: EPA
Taylor, who authorities say has at least eight aliases, remained in jail in Beaumont, Texas, on Friday.
Taylor said in a telephone interview with the Morning News that she and Nowitzki were to be married in July. She said she learned of her pregnancy after getting tested when admitted to the Dallas jail, but Hart said “we have been told” that she hadn’t received a pregnancy test.
After Taylor’s arrest on May 6, a woman identifying herself as Taylor’s best friend was telling media outlets that Taylor was pregnant with Nowitzki’s baby.
That, Hart’s statement says, raises questions about the claim Taylor learned she was pregnant at the jail.
Taylor told the newspaper that she’d lived with Nowitzki for the last two years.
Nowitzki has declined to answer questions about his relationship with Taylor, but has said he’s “going through a tough time in my personal life.”
The Mavericks said Nowitzki left Dallas for Germany on Thursday and Hart did not immediately return a message on Friday.
The Morning News said it didn’t publish Taylor’s interview until after a phone conversation with one of her attorneys, St Louis-based Amy Gervich.
Taylor was indicted in 2006 on a theft of services charge for failing to pay a Beaumont dentist for dental work ranging from US$1,500 to US$20,000 she received in 2004. She has a US$50,000 bond set on the theft of services charge, but was also arrested for a probation violation out of St Charles County, Missouri, and is being held without bond on that charge.
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