Local News in Brief : Woman Seeks Child-Support Payments From David Cassidy

A 35-year-old Sylmar woman filed a petition Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court claiming that singer-actor David Cassidy is the father of her 18-month-old daughter.

Sherry Williams is asking for $5,000 a month in child support and medical expenses from the former teen idol, said her attorney, Marvin Mitchelson.

Mitchelson said the petition alleges that the “defendant has failed and refused . . . to provide adequate funds for the support” of the child.

A spokeswoman for Cassidy’s agent, Howard Goldberg, said Cassidy, 38, had no comment on the matter.

Mitchelson said the $5,000 figure takes into consideration the child’s needs as well as Cassidy’s ability to pay. Mitchelson said he will ask the court Tuesday to order Cassidy to undergo a blood test to “show who the father is.”

Mitchelson said Williams and Cassidy are both divorced and have known each for 18 years.

Williams, a former actress and model, met Cassidy when she made a guest appearance on the television series “The Partridge Family,” Mitchelson said. The show, which aired from 1970 to 1974, featured Cassidy as a teen-age singer and musician in a family band.

Williams now manages a tanning salon. “She’s making a living, but she’s not doing real well financially,” Mitchelson said. “She needs that support for the child. She’s had 18 months of no help at all.”

He said Williams has tried over the last 18 months to settle the matter out of court. “There have been attempts to work things out, but that hasn’t happened,” Mitchelson said.

Mitchelson is best known for defending Michelle Triola Marvin in her 1976 palimony suit against actor Lee Marvin.