Please be seated. Good morning, Your Honor. Good morning. This is the case of Hendricks
vs. Hendricks. Thank you, Jerome,
good day everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. Miss Hendricks, you
and your husband previously appeared in
court because you suspected he was being unfaithful. Yes, your Honor. She was naked on the bed. And Chris was in there. Oh, I'm perfectly aware
of what's at stake. There's the girls
and then the baby, I mean... You're expecting? Yeah, I am. JUDGE DANA: Oh, my. Mr. Hendricks was asked had he had sex with his ex,
what was his response? His response was no. What did the lie detector
determine? The lie detector determined
that he was being truthful. (APPLAUSE) Mrs. Hendricks, the shoe is now
on the other foot. JUDGE LAKE: Your husband is
accusing you of cheating and says that he is not the father of your one month
old baby, Chris Jr.
Is that correct? MS. HENDRICKS:
Yes, Your Honor. Mr. Hendricks, you say
you confirm that your wife
has been unfaithful and there is no way her child is yours, is that correct? Yes, Your Honor. So you're also
petitioning the court
for a lie detection test to determine the extent
of your wife's cheating,
is that correct? Yes, your Honor. LAUREN: All right,
I'll start with you, Ms. Hendricks, how do you
feel knowing your husband is denying your baby? I'm very pissed off
because he is your twin. I mean, he's his twin. LAUREN : And you don't think
he has any reason
to deny the child? MS. HENDRICKS: No. I mean, I was very
honest with him with what happened before
and he has taken it to the extent
of denying our son. Even though I had done
everything he wanted me to do. Named him after him,
circumcised him, did
everything. Mr. Hendricks, she says she did
everything you wanted her to do
even name the child after you. You don't believe
the child is yours? I don't feel the bond like I do
with my other children. MS. HENDRICKS: I even named
him after your dad, I mean... MR. HENDRICKS:
He barely looks like me. I'm not seeing any
characteristics, he don't have
any of my personal features I just... I just...
I don't know. You must be blind. I'm not seeing it. As well as the others. MS. HENDRICKS: He has
no reason to doubt me because I was honest with you about what happened
and I always have been. So, take me back
to the situation that's surrounding
the paternity doubt relating to baby Christopher. Last September, um... My... his Facebook messages
were coming to my phone and it was one of his
co-workers and she was saying very
sexual things to him. MS. HENDRICKS:
About 10 days later
I had found out that I had endometrial cancer. And I got real sick and... I'm so sorry to hear that. Well, I'm in remission now,
thank God. LAUREN: Thank God, yes. And, um... Whenever I was diagnosed
with all of that, I just
got very upset, and with everything that was
going on with him, I was like,
"Okay, well, you're cheating." So, I mean, I'm just gonna go
and do whatever I wanted to,
live like I was dying 'cause that's what I felt like
I was doing. So we're in a situation now
where Ms. Hendricks doesn't trust you. She's got this diagnosis of cancer that
she has to deal with and she admittedly starts living like
she's dying, drinking, partying and doing
things that...
Refusing to come home? She didn't... She
never came home. LAUREN: At night? Never. I'd always be at
my family members house. She's stay at her family
members house. You knew where I was I ... I mean I'm a very
predictable person. You would come home long
enough to change your clothes, take a shower
and leave again. Okay, and you know exactly
where I went so... I was so uncomfortable
with our past and our life that I didn't even
stay in the house. MR. HENDRICKS: I took our car and I wound up driving
around town wasting gas falling asleep in it on dirt roads
'cause I couldn't go home. Or maybe when I got
the phone call
whenever I had cancer you told me, "Well, with
everything that's going on,
should I care?" LAUREN: Wait a minute. Did you say that,
Mr. Hendricks? To an extent. No, those were his exact words. LAUREN: Oh, now that's cruel. So you all were
in a very bad place. We were fighting very bad
and I mean, that was... Like I said, around ten days. Uh... After I found out
all that stuff. So, now, I wanna understand
from you, were... This pattern she developed, going out, drinking,
not coming home, this is the behavior
that you felt indicated that she potentially could be
sleeping with somebody else? Yeah, there was... Explain. We had everybody over
at our house drinking and we had started working
out our issues. I came into the room, and they were already
into a conversation. This was months after... Who are "they"?
Who is "they"? Carrie and her... Ms. Hendricks and
a family member. Okay. So, I was like so,
"What is it that you're
supposed to tell me?" And she says, "Nothing." She looks at this
family member and says, "I'll put it on the such
and such as grave "that nothing happened." And she said... The family
member looked at her and said "You're a boldface liar. "You straight came to my
house the very next night, "and said you did it." I hadn't't. LAUREN: That you slept
with somebody else? Sexual relations with
this other gentleman. That did not come from me
that came from the family member
that I was around
and you know that. MR. HENDRICKS: But at the same
time she keeps telling me... But! That she was too drunk,
that she don't remember
if anything happened or not. MS. HENDRICKS:
I did say that. Ms. Hendricks, what is your
side of the story? If you're saying, you
didn't sleep with this man, it's kinda hard
for Mr. Hendricks to believe when your
family members are
saying you did. Okay. Like I said, I've been
hanging out with them all. We... My... My brother had started
a bonfire and everything. One his friend that he hung
out with and worked with
came over. While we were hanging out
we were drinking whiskey. And... We... I ended up kissing him. And I immediately called him
and asked him to come
and get me. And I told him what happened
and he said, "Where are you?"
and I told him. He came and he ended
up leaving without me and... I remember up to that point
and after that I don't. I mean, I don't remember
'cause I kept drinking. She remembers kissing him
in the kitchen though. I do. So at that point,
you pretty much
blacked out or you have no memory recall
'cause you were that drunk. And then shortly
after that... Yes, I was. You find out
you're pregnant. I found out I was pregnant
four months later. So you find out
you're pregnant? Yes. Do you tell Mr. Hendricks
immediately, "I'm pregnant"? I was at the doc... I actually
went into the emergency room because I had internal hernia. MS. HENDRICKS: Well,
my surgeon had ordered a pregnancy test
all this, you know, because if I had
to go in for surgery, So they came back and said, "You do realize you're
very early pregnant." My HCG level was only 22, so I mean,
he had just implanted. Which is the reason why
I started doubting it
right off the bat. MS. HENDRICKS: Why? Because we went
through extensive fertility medicine to have
our four year old daughter. Tried for five years. MR. HENDRICKS: Unprotected sex. No, no... nothing. So four years after we have
our first daughter, she winds up pregnant? Just out of the blue,
after our little issues
and after she goes and starts visiting
and hanging out,
she winds up pregnant. I don't find that fair whenever
he's bringing up the treatments
I went through. Because I was 170 pounds more
and the doctor even told you if I'd lose weight it'd be
a lot easier for me
to get pregnant. But you didn't
for four years. Then you have the...
Then you have the surgery, MR. HENDRICKS:
You go on a little party rant. It's straight forward so... You start hanging out
with another guy and then all of a sudden
you wind up pregnant. You don't find that
funny at all? No, 'cause I know
what I was doing and I know I was
with you only. Well, but, Ms. Hendricks, you
know, I have to say this, you just testified that on that night in question,
you didn't know what happened. But I'm a very honest person
and I did call and tell
immediately. And I even asked him
to come and get me so he... LAUREN: Oh, no, I... Listen. Now I can respect that
as a woman. You say, "You know what,
I'm too drunk,
I just did something "that I shouldn't do,
shouldn't have done. "Let me call my husband,
let me call my family. "Come get me because I know
I'm a hot mess over here." But what we do have to take
into account, is that you don't know
what happened after that. And based upon your testimony, he does have reason to doubt. I even went to the extent...
We went and paid
for a 4D ultrasound. Just to see... Just to see
if there were any sort
of characteristics that looked like me. MS. HENDRICKS:
And he looks just like you.
I mean, even in a 4D. MR. HENDRICKS: Yes, it's... MS. HENDRICKS:<i> Do you not
see his eyes?</i> LAUREN: You don't see a blob,
that's a baby. MR. HENDRICKS: Well, you
can see the nose and eyes... Yeah. But it's too early, you know. LAUREN: But, but, but,
your point is that you
were that worried about it. MR. HENDRICKS: Oh,
I was very concerned,
I wanted to know right there. I mean, we fought over this. I mean we fought over
these pictures
so much because he's like, "I don't think he looks
like me." And I said
"How do you figure?" I mean... LAUREN: You know it's bad
when you evaluating
a baby in the womb. MS. HENDRICKS: My uterus is... That's when it's bad. No, no, and that's why
we're here, because that... This is what we try to... Make people understand
is that relationships that
go off the rails, often produce
situations like this,
paternity situations, where, I mean, literally
this baby trying to grow and mature and get ready
to make its debut
into this world is like under a microscope. And features being
evaluated because
of a paternity issue. I've got this notch in my ear
that my other kids have... This one don't even have it. MS. HENDRICKS: Oh, baloney. MR. HENDRICKS:<i> He don't have
any of the characteristics
that I have.</i> LAUREN:<i> So you're saying
there are physical
characteristics you don't see.</i> And I can see as you talk
about this, Mr. Hendricks,
it really upsets you. MR. HENDRICKS: It does.
Because... I lost both my fathers. And I want my last name
to go on when I pass. MR. HENDRICKS: I'm
not seeing it with this one. And as you look at
this beautiful baby... And this one
is actually named
after me and my father. So the tribute
to this is so insane that it crushes me
even just looking at it. MR. HENDRICKS: Is he mine?
Is he not mine? Even as you look
at this picture... MR. HENDRICKS:
As I look at that picture I just, I don't have
the connection. It went to the extent when
we were in the hospital, that... When he was born
he was not breathing
for a minute and a half. MR. HENDRICKS: Finds out
he's got a blood disorder. That is crazy because
it's fighting with her blood. With the more I got
to thinking about it, none of my other kids have
ever had this problem. Our four year old daughter
does not have this problem. And so you're wondering,
if potentially, this has something to do
with the fact that the baby may have another
biological father? Correct. But it's not a genetic
disorder... It's not, it's... My blood type is O positive,
the baby's is A positive. And... O and A don't mix
and somehow my blood passed through the barrier
of the placenta and that's what happened,
my antibodies started
attacking his blood cells. But if I'm his father, how come
it didn't do it to our
four year old daughter? If you were at the... If you were at the hospital
instead of off gallivanting because you were mad at me,
you would have been able to know what the doctor
said and explained. Well, Ms. Hendricks that's why
we're here in this court room because we like
to get doubt cleared out. Right? And because of that
we wanna call on
Dr. Jahmeela Gater to give her expertise
on this particular condition. Baby Christopher
and counter Jerome, will you please escort
Dr. Gater into the court room? Right up to the witness stand,
watch your step. Hi, Dr. Gater. Hi. Thank you so much
for joining us again. We are here talking
about a paternity issue relating to baby Christopher. LAUREN: And you've had
an opportunity to review the court file, am I correct? Yes. And so Ms. Hendricks
has explained that there was some issue
between blood transfer... Or as the baby
was in the womb. But Mr. Hendricks says, "No person in his family "has ever experienced any like
thing like this. "Nor did their older child
that they had together." We need to understand
if this blood issue is connected in any way
to paternity. Can you tell us about
what this issue is? Sure. So... Like DNA, blood type
is passed down
from parent to child. A child will inherit one type
from each parent. There's type O, A and B. And so typically in ABO
incompatibility, the mother has type O, the baby has a different type. Such as A or B. And what happens is,
is that the mother's body
sees that blood as foreign, and the immune systems
starts to attack it and creates something
called antibodies, which attacks the baby's blood
and can destroy the blood cells and the baby can get very sick. Typically, the blood supply
between mom and baby
are kept separate, but we do know in almost
every pregnancy, that cells do pass
back and forth. And so if the baby's blood
passes into the mother's
bloodstream, and her immune system
mounts an attack, then you can have an ABO
incompatibility. So with ABO
incompatibility, can this be an indication
of a paternity issue? Indirectly, it can, because
you expect the parents' blood type not to change. And so if ABO incompatibility, unlike other blood type
incompatibilities, it typically happens
in the first pregnancy and then continues with subsequent pregnancies
between father and child. And it's just because the blood types pass in between
and we don't exactly understand how the barrier breaks down, and the blood cells pass
in between. So it could happen in
the first pregnancy
or any subsequent pregnancy. LAUREN: So with that said, because of this particular
medical condition, we don't know for certain, so
the stakes are very high here. Mr. Hendricks, I can see
this really affects you. This family's my planet. It's what I breathe. This one here just completes
my solar system,
you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. So you want this
to be your child? A hundred and thirty percent. I want him to be mine. So we could
be happy again. Put all this, you know,
BS behind us. Go forward
and be a family. Well, that's why we're here. MR. HENDRICKS: Yes, ma'am. I have the paternity results
for you. And I have the lie detector
results you requested
for as well. We will start with
the paternity results. Jerome, the envelope. (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) These results were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics, and they read as follows... In the case
of<i> Hendricks v. Hendricks,</i> LAUREN: In the case
of<i> Hendricks v. Hendricks,</i> when it comes to one month old
Christopher James Hendricks. It has been determined
by this court, Mr. Hendricks... You are the father. MS. HENDRICKS: I told you. (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Thank you. MS. HENDRICKS: Told you,
you had no reason, I mean... You didn't need to doubt me. LAUREN: Miss Hendricks, he did. And there was reasonable... MR. HENDRICKS: It was there.
I'm sorry. LAUREN: We got the answer
we wanted. But he did have reason
to doubt. That's what
you have to understand. And you all have to stop
beating yourselves up
and each other up over this because now
we were able to get the truth and the clarity
you needed on at least
this issue, the paternity question, so that this baby no longer
has that question hanging over its head. He now knows that
he is from a long line
of Christophers. Now I want you
to understand, Miss Hendricks,
this is difficult. You went through
a very traumatic thing. So we're not here
to place blame on you. We know you were
dealing with extreme
emotional circumstances. You didn't even know
how to process. And you were also dealing
with your husband's potential infidelities. We know how we got here. The question is, is how
do we move forward? And I have the lie detector
results, and I will meet you
in my chambers to give you the answers. I think it will bring closure
on both sides, because she don't remember. She said she don't remember. And if she were
truly blacked out,
I think it would benefit both to know. All right, well, I will
meet you in my chambers. Court is adjourned. (AUDIENCE APPLAUDS)
