Please be seated.
Hello, Your Honor.
Hello.
This is the case of Jefferson v. Singleton.
Thank you, Jerome. Good day, everyone.
AUDIENCE: Good day.
Ms. Jefferson, you say you're here today to end the neighborhood rumors,
and lies about your sexual history.
You've asked the court for the results of a paternity test on Sir Javion,
your two-month-old son, to help you prove
you were faithful to the man you say is his father.
Yes, Your Honor.
Mr. Singleton, you argue that Ms. Jefferson is not to be trusted or believed.
Yes, Your Honor.
And you contend that not only did she once lie about being seven months pregnant,
but you claim you also have physical proof that two other men
could've fathered her son.
Yes, Your Honor.
Additionally, Ms. Jefferson, you are suing the defendant for $2,000.
Yes, Your Honor.
You claim Mr. Singleton took baby clothes
and furniture from you without your knowledge or consent
just three weeks before you gave birth to your son.
Yes, Your Honor.
That's correct.
So, Ms. Jefferson, let's start with the $2,000
in baby items you claim Mr. Singleton took
unlawfully. What happened?
Okay, three weeks prior to that, ma'am, me and Mr. Singleton had got into it.
Mmm-hmm.
It was about some Facebook stuff I'd seen on his page.
So I asked Mr. Singleton, when he goes, take all his clothes and don't come back.
So, I was at my sister's house.
So, I went to the doctor and they said my pressure was up.
So, they were like, due to a preeclampsia, you're going to have to have your baby early.
Okay, so I was in the hospital, I had my baby. It was three days,
we had to stay in the hospital for three days.
Okay, so I come home,
and I go in my house and the first thing I notice was my rug messed up.
JEFFERSON: I said...
I object, Your Honor.
JEFFERSON: Excuse me, Your Honor.
You object?
Excuse me, Your Honor. When I put out my... When I looked at my rug,
it was paint on my rug.
So, as I pursued to go in the room and opened my door,
everything was on the floor.
He messed up. I looked in my closet,
all the baby clothes were gone.
So, I went in the other room, it was a box with three junior outfits in it.
It was six to nine months and my baby was a newborn.
How can my baby wear six to nine months,
um, junior outfits, and they was too big.
But, no... Matter of fact, Your Honor, I have, um,
a picture where the clothes was on.
Let me see that, Jerome.
And also I have... I broke down
what Mr. Singleton purchased and what I had purchased.
Purchases and receipts and stuff.
Your Honor, I object.
So, Mr. Singleton,
fill me in. You took the baby's clothes?
I... You know, she put me out three weeks before the baby was due,
and she went on Facebook and told... I mean, I have...
Your Honor, there's a reason why I went on Facebook.
Can I talk, please?
I went on Facebook and my friend called me and said,
"Man, did you check your Facebook page?" I said, "No, what's going on?"
He said, "Your baby mama on there saying you can stay in New Orleans."
So, I looked and I said, "Really?"
I say, "She three weeks, about to be three weeks
"with the baby. How is she telling me that?"
Your Honor.
Okay. Can I talk, please?
No, because you is not being truthful.
So, when I did...
It don't matter, you shouldn't have took your son's clothes.
When I did talk to her, Your Honor...
What man would take his son's clothes?
When I did talk to her...
What man would take their son's clothes?
JUDGE LAKE: Okay.
You're right.
(ARGUING INDISTINCTLY)
I wanna get to
why you took the baby's clothes.
What I want to understand is
did you take the baby's clothes?
Yes, I did.
All right, now, that's the answer to the question.
I'm gonna be a man and I did take the baby's clothes,
because she told me to get all your belongings.
You're the reason why you got put out.
I bought the clothes,
so I was taking all of my belongings.
Okay, so hold on.
This evidence you presented, ma'am.
Yes, Your Honor.
These are the clothes that you had.
Yes, all them clothes.
Them all the clothes that I purchased and he purchased.
All these clothes I see here
were clothes purchased for the baby by the both of you.
And the reason why I put him out of my house, Your Honor, because
he was messaging a girl on Facebook
when... He was supposed to went out of town with his friend, Mr. Williams,
to New Orleans, and he said when he get there he wanted to see the girl and I seen it.
So, guess what I did? I went on Facebook and I told him,
"When you leave, take all your clothes."
You post on Facebook and tell him to get out?
Yes, I did.
And when you got home,
he was gone, but he also took the baby's clothes.
Everything was gone.
And your clothes.
Even the baby bag, he took.
He didn't take my clothes, he took the baby bag.
(AUDIENCE GROANS)
He took the baby bag.
So, just the baby bag.
Baby bag and the baby clothes.
So, these receipts
that you presented, are for all the things you say that he took.
Yes, Your Honor. That's correct.
All right.
Your Honor, I object, I really do. I object.
I object because she went on my Facebook page,
I was messaging my friends...
That wasn't your friend.
I wanted to hook up with them.
I wanted to hook up with my friends when I went to New Orleans.
She's a jealous female.
Hold on, now, Mr. Singleton, just give me a minute.
I'm looking through these receipts and I see receipts for all these outfits.
SINGLETON: That I purchased.
You purchased and I purchased, too. It don't matter who...
She purchased it with my money.
JUDGE LAKE: Well, we have...
JEFFERSON: You don't take your baby clothes, that's wrong.
It don't matter what we're going through, you shouldn't have took...
JUDGE LAKE: You purchased $1,005 worth of outfits,
Polo outfits, Puma outfits, all these outfits. You got newborn baby shirts.
I feel she didn't deserve it because she put me out.
No, you put... You know...
No.
She told me to leave three weeks before.
Your Honor... How can you...
It's not about me, it's about my newborn baby.
It's not about me, it's about my newborn baby.
She should've thought...
She should've thought about that, Your Honor,
before she went on Facebook.
I'll be a fool if I allow you to stay in my house when you talking to other females.
I could do better by myself. What you think?
She could have told me...
You honor, I could do better by myself.
She could've came to me.
I also have other kids at the house, too.
JUDGE LAKE: Okay, let's calm down.
SINGLETON: She could've called me on the phone and told me that.
Let's calm down.
Now, at this point,
I've seen the receipts. They total $1,955.99.
JEFFERSON: That's correct.
JUDGE LAKE: So, Mr. Singleton, I've gotta ask you.
SINGLETON: Yes, Your Honor.
What would possess you to come into a house and take
clothes from a baby?
SINGLETON: That I bought.
You, obviously, were going through something, in terms of your thinking.
Were you doubtful this child was yours?
I was, Your Honor.
In November, she lied about being seven months pregnant.
JEFFERSON: No.
That's not correct.
Can I finish please, Your Honor?
That's false, Your Honor.
She lied about being seven months pregnant.
I had relocated to New Orleans,
so I come back to her city to support her.
I come to fine out she's not even pregnant.
I asked her, "Well, what about the sonogram?"
She said, "A sonogram comes in the mail."
Your Honor, You Honor...
JEFFERSON: Your Honor, no.
Sonograms do not come in the mail.
Period.
Excuse me, Your Honor. Can I speak?
No, you can't speak.
SINGLETON: It's my turn.
That would be a fact.
Move on.
Right.
So, when I find that out, I'm like, "Okay, now, we need to go to the doctor
"and see what's going on."
When we go to the doctor, she's actually pregnant.
Now, I'm like, "Whoa, hold up, hold up.
"Hold up, you told me you seven months pregnant,
"but now you're actually pregnant?"
That's why I have doubts, Your Honor.
Okay, so the bottom line is, while you're out of town she told you,
"I'm seven months pregnant." So you...
Just to get me back to Jacksonville. Just to get me back.
So, you came on back to be there for her. You came back,
there was no sonogram picture when you asked for it. It was in the mail.
Right.
And then you said, "Let's go on to the doctor."
And when you do, she really is pregnant,
but they give you a date as to how pregnant she was?
Exactly, Your Honor.
And I'm like, "Wow!"
JEFFERSON: Your Honor, that's not how it happened.
I'm like, "How could this be the date when she already told me
"she was seven months pregnant?"
JUDGE LAKE: So, now, Ms. Jefferson.
Yes, Your Honor. I'm glad I could speak now.
Your Honor, that's not how it happened, Your Honor.
This is what happened, Your Honor, I went to St. Vincent's,
and they said that, "Teresa, you had a miscarriage."
But I had conceived in September, again,
because we had slept together in September.
Whoa, whoa.
Two weeks after my birthday.
So, that's when I conceived.
Whoa, Your Honor, hold up.
He already knew this.
I object!
So,
let me translate.
SINGLETON: Yeah, please translate that lie.
You
say you were pregnant.
Yes, Your Honor.
And then you had a miscarriage.
Yes, and I did not know I had a miscarriage.
And then you conceived another child with him.
Yes, Your Honor, in September.
When you confirmed you were pregnant the second time,
how far along did they say you were?
(STUTTERING) I was like, uh, I think I was... I went in...
She's lying.
(STUTTERING) A couple of weeks.
I was a couple of weeks.
Your Honor, she's lying.
I was a couple of weeks pregnant...
Okay.
Your Honor...
JUDGE LAKE: Mr. Singleton?
Yes, ma'am.
When you figured out,
for the second time, she really was pregnant.
She really was pregnant, this time.
You had doubts that you were the father.
Correct.
Why?
I was, Your Honor.
She don't tell me where she's going, she takes the kids,
she don't call me, she don't text me.
So, in a man's mind,
in a man's... A real man's mind,
when your woman is gone,
for three, four days without no phone call,
without telling you... That's some type of doubt, Your Honor.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
That's some type of doubt.
JEFFERSON: Your Honor, the reason why I leave, Your Honor,
because he's disrespectful. I leave because he's disrespectful.
Are you spending time with other men
when you...
JEFFERSON: No.
You're not with any other guy?
If I didn't love this man, I wouldn't have gotten his name
tattooed across my chest, I wouldn't do none of that, Your Honor.
JUDGE LAKE: So, you've never been with another guy.
I'm faithful to him, Your Honor.
JUDGE LAKE: You've never been with another guy.
No other guy, no.
She's lying.
JUDGE LAKE: All right, hold on.
Mr. Singleton, you have a witness.
Yes, I do, Your Honor.
Please, stand, sir.
State your name for the court.
Darnell Williams.
Mr. Williams, thank you for joining us today. What do you know about this situation?
Well, I've been knowing Mr. Singleton and Ms. Jefferson for almost 10 years, now.
So, when Mr. Singleton left initially,
I told him I was gonna look after his
baby mama to make sure they don't need nothing.
So, you know, we don't knock on each other's doors. We just walk in to each other's doors.
So, one day, I was cooking some fish.
So, I had some mustard, but no hot sauce,
so, I went down...
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
JUDGE LAKE: Got to have the hot sauce.
Got to have the hot sauce.
JUDGE LAKE: Okay, go ahead.
Excuse me.
So I went downstairs and just walked through the door.
And so, when I walked in the door,
the lights was off, so...
JUDGE LAKE: You walked into whose door?
Ms. Jefferson's door.
Okay, keep going.
So, when I walked in the lights was off, so I hit the light switch
and to my surprise, I'm like, "What the holy heck is going on?"
She was trying to pull her shirt down, I don't see no shorts or nothing,
and there's this dude sitting on the sofa,
you know, he's trying to fix his clothes.
So, she's like, "Oh, DJ, you just gonna walk in my house?"
I say, "We always just walk into each other house."
We don't never knock on the door.
So, I was like, "Oh, who was that?"
She was like, "Oh, that's my cousin."
So, I was like, "Okay, really? That's your cousin?"
It already been rumors going around
that she's been messing with the maintenance man.
(AUDIENCE JEERING)
Whatever's going on in that apartment, I hear about it.
And I can see everything that goes on downstairs,
to the left of me, to the right of me, in front of me.
And so, as you're sitting up there,
you see the maintenance man
spend a little too much time down in her unit.
Yes, ma'am.
A whole lot of things broken.
Uh, Mr. Williams, look,
I mean, if he works in maintenance
and there's something that needs to be repaired in her apartment,
he can go in there and fix...
You're right, Your Honor.
But, I will say this now,
if we need repairs three and four times a week,
now, we might have an issue. Thank you for your testimony, you may be seated.
JEFFERSON: Your Honor, can I speak?
Now, listen,
bottom line is, you're getting all this news,
and you're starting to feel like,
"What's going on here?" She's sleeping with other people.
SINGLETON: Correct, Your Honor.
"She was pregnant, but not pregnant."
Correct.
So, you were completely confused as to whether or not
you were this child's father.
Correct. And if I'm not the father of this child, I want my name back.
And yet, despite your doubt,
you still... You admit to purchasing
this child a lot of clothing.
You were getting ready for the baby.
You were supportive in that way.
SINGLETON: Of course I messed some things up, but I purchased,
I also replaced everything that I messed up, Your Honor.
I replaced our carpet, I replaced our television.
I replaced everything that I messed up...
Did you replace the clothes, too?
I replaced the clothes. She has more clothes for the baby,
even though I doubt that he is mine.
I still support him, even though I still doubt that he is mine.
Ms. Jefferson, let me ask you this,
did he replace the carpet and the clothes and the things that he destroyed?
No, he did not replace the carpet. Um, he did,
two weeks ago, when he seen my baby,
he bring me my baby clothes, that's the only thing.
He did not replace my carpet.
What he did was cruel and hurtful
and that's really stressing me out,
to the point I had the baby at 37 weeks and six days.
This is my last son that I feel that I'm gonna have
and she knew how passionate I felt
about cutting the umbilical cord and she told me,
she told me, actually two days before
she had the baby, "Don't even come here."
And I'm like, "Are you serious?"
And I'm like, "Are you serious? This is supposed to be my child."
And I can't come
share this moment with you?
I mean, look at that little boy, it hurts.
He's a beautiful little boy and I would want him to be mine.
But, Your Honor, if he's not mine,
I gotta take my name back,
because I'm tired of being deceived, lied to
and ran over just because of it.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
He took all my baby's stuff.
My baby ain't have nothing but three outfits
and they was too big.
It stressed me out and he knew it stressed me out.
JUDGE LAKE: And so you felt so overwhelmed...
And then he texts my phone and laughs about taking my baby's clothes.
Soon after he did that,
I changed my number and I haven't talked to him.
Two weeks ago, I let him see my son and then he brought my baby's clothes,
but he still left the other clothes down there.
For, um, six to nine months and 12 months.
And my baby is growing, so I have to...
I don't have a job so I gotta see how to get him some more clothes.
SINGLETON: I have to support her, that's what it is.
She just said she didn't have a job.
All the clothes that she purchased,
she was purchasing with my money.
Okay, let me be clear on something.
You took the clothes, but then you brought the clothes back.
I did, Your Honor.
He brought half of them back.
Okay, so he brought half the clothes back.
Yes, Your Honor.
So there's another half...
There is another half that's for the 12 to 18 months, I feel
she don't need that right now,
because I still wanna know if this is my child.
That's why.
JUDGE LAKE: Okay.
JEFFERSON: You're trying to be so nasty, but there's an innocent baby,
we're bickering and arguing over nothing and we got an innocent baby here,
that's stuck in the middle of all this foolishness.
And it's not about us, it's about him. He needs his stuff.
He needs his stuff, Your Honor.
SINGLETON: She's right.
I'm tired of bickering and arguing with him.
I'm sorry.
If this kid is not mine, yes, I will be hurt,
and yeah, I do want some of my money back.
With that said, I think it's time to alleviate this doubt.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
And I think it's time for the results.
Thank you, Jerome.
These result were prepared by DNA Diagnostics
and they read as follows...
as to whether or not you are this child's father.
These result were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows.
In the case of Jefferson v. Singleton,
when it comes to two-month-old
Sir Javion Singleton.
Mr. Singleton.
Yes, Your Honor.
You are his father.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you.
I'm thankful that these results have
squashed everyone's doubts.
SINGLETON: Yes, it has,
and I do wanna apologize to Ms. Jefferson
from taking the clothes and for any doubt that I have,
but I do want her to understand, she's the one putting the doubt,
but I'm glad we got the results and now we can move on as parents.
So, as for your suit,
and suing for this, would you like to just drop your claim
and know that now that he knows it's his son...
No.
So, you don't wanna drop your claim?
No.
All right, so, let's do the math.
You originally sued for $2,000.
JEFFERSON: Yes, Your Honor.
And so, you admit
that he returned half of it.
As the parents of this child, you both
are responsible to care for this child equally.
JUDGE LAKE: Right?
SINGLETON: Right.
So, with that said,
I'm gonna order you to return the clothes to Ms. Jefferson,
or pay her $500.
SINGLETON: Yes, Your Honor.
All right?
Yes, Your Honor.
So, the judgment is for the plaintiff.
And look, you all do a lot of talking.
And look, I counsel couples and people that have to co-parent
to dialogue, that's a good thing.
Communication is not just a one-way street,
it's a two-way street. Do you understand?
BOTH: Yes, Your Honor.
And it's important
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
that you understand that, ultimately, your child
is the beneficiary of that communication.
You got it?
Yes, Your Honor.
All right, good luck to both of you. Court is adjourned.
Thank you so much.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét