GOLDSBORO - Dwayne Dail walked into the Wayne County Courthouse on Wednesday, mumbling disgust for the place where 18 years ago a judge and jury sent him to prison for another man's crime.

He returned to the courthouse this week to try to prevent his son's mother from claiming some of the $360,000 the state owes him as something of an apology for spending half his life in prison.

Dail drove up from Florida, where he now lives, to ask a judge to throw out his childhood sweetheart's lawsuit. Lorraine Michaels, the mother of their 18-year-old son, Chris Michaels, sued Dail for back child support after raising the boy alone.

Wayne County District Court Judge David Brantley decided to mull it over and render a decision later.

"That's exactly what's wrong with the court system," Dail said after the hearing, throwing open the doors to the courthouse atrium. "Everybody wonders why I'm not mad. Well, I'm mad now."

Dail, 39, was released in August after DNA evidence taken from a long-forgotten nightgown proved he didn't rape a 12-year-old Goldsboro girl in 1989. Dail missed his son's childhood; Chris Michaels turned 18 last month.

"My son was cheated," Dail said through tears Wednesday. "Lori was, too, but not by me."

A rage overcame Dail on Wednesday, an emotion he has managed to keep at bay in the three months he has been free. During the hearing, Dail blurted a sarcastic comment at Sarah Heekin, Lorraine Michaels' attorney. After the hearing, he broke down in tears as reporters pressed him on how he meant to spend the money the state owes him. Dail complained he was "kidnapped," not incarcerated.

The lawsuit has taken a toll on Chris Michaels, too.

"I don't know what to do," he said this month. "I love my mom; she's the only parent I had. I love my dad with all my heart. To have to pick a side -- it's stressed me ... out."

Chris Michaels has refused to set foot in a courtroom where his parents are squaring off in his name over money. He moved to Florida last month to get to know his father and stayed there with relatives while his father came to deal with the child support matter.

His mother, too, did not attend Wednesday's hearing.

The lawsuit asks legal questions never before answered in North Carolina courts, experts say. The biggest one: Should the money the state pays wrongly convicted men be treated as back income?

"This case raises a boatload of issues that hopefully will never happen again," said Lee Rosen, a Raleigh lawyer who specializes in family law. "This is so unusual and so unanticipated by statute that a judge will have tremendous latitude."

Dail's attorney, Shelby Benton, argued Wednesday that the case should be thrown out. She said that North Carolina law doesn't hold parents responsible for child support while they are in prison because they don't earn enough to pay.

Heekin, Lorraine Michaels' attorney, countered that the compensation Dail is due should be considered income.

"It's the public policy of the state that we recompense someone wrongly denied their liberty," Heekin said. "What's the remedy for this mother who, through no wrongful conduct of her own, was left without the support of this defendant?"

Dail said he wished Michaels had just asked him for money. He said he would have given it to her.

Heekin told reporters that she invites Dail to make an offer.