DNA testing inconclusive for Las Vegas man who wants to know if brother is his son

Logan Gifford entered a Family Court hearing Thursday hoping DNA test results would determine whether his teenage brother is also his son.

But the results raised more questions.

Family Court Judge Vincent Ochoa said testing found that both Logan Gifford and his father, Theodore Gifford, could be the 16-year-old child’s father. For both, the likelihood of paternity was found to be 99.9 percent, the judge indicated.

“I think we should have known that was going to come out that way from the very beginning,” said Ochoa, who added that Logan Gifford could probably request further testing.

Logan Gifford, now 26, was a teenager when a judge ordered his mother, Doreene Gifford, to serve an eight-to-20-year prison sentence and register as a sex offender in 2015. Gifford had accused his mother of sexually abusing him repeatedly over a period of years, including around the time his brother would have been conceived.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is withholding his 16-year-old brother’s name because he is a juvenile and because of the sensitive nature of the subject matter.

Doreene Gifford, who declined to comment, entered an Alford plea to counts of attempted sexual assault and lewdness with a child under 14. Under an Alford plea, a defendant admits only that prosecutors have enough evidence to obtain a conviction. The Nevada sex offender registry shows that she now lives in Massachusetts.

Ochoa questioned whether Doreene Gifford had rights to custody and visitation after the criminal case.

Attorney Timothy Treffinger, who represents Logan Gifford, said he didn’t think she did.

“I don’t know what my rights are, if anything at all,” said Doreene Gifford, who appeared in court via videoconferencing. “I don’t know what’s in the best interest of the child.”

The judge awarded Logan Gifford temporary custody of his brother. A prior temporary guardianship would have expired Thursday, according to Treffinger.

Logan Gifford said he will probably continue to seek answers.

“I’m going to definitely pray about this, but more than likely, we’ll continue to pursue it,” said Logan Gifford, adding that his brother “deserves to have genetic clarity.”

“He’s aware of what’s going on and he understands why we’re trying to get to the truth for him,” Logan Gifford said. “Because this wasn’t about me. This was about trying to get genetic answers for him.”

Experts said further testing could clarify the situation.

Jennifer Below, director of the Vanderbilt University genetics institute, said parents and siblings share the same overall proportion of the genome, or complete set of genetic information in a person’s DNA: 50 percent.

“It’s just that the pattern of that sharing is expected to be different,” she said.

DNA testing should be able to determine if Logan Gifford is his brother’s sibling or father, according to Below.

“I’m pretty shocked that it’s not more definitive,” said Arthur Beaudet, a past president of the American Society of Human Genetics.

“This is a job not for the average lab that does paternity testing and disputes between individuals all the time,” he added. “This is a job for a top-notch expert in this area.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.