Please be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello. This is the case of<i>
Duvall/Bovill v. Bovill.</i> Thank you, Jerome. Good day, everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. Ms. Bovill, two years ago, you and your mother
were shocked when the man you always
believed is your dad told you he is not
your biological father. You tried to bring
the defendant to<i>
Paternity Court</i> six months ago, but say he backed out
of his appearance. Now that he is here, you state the DNA results
will finally prove your case.
Is that correct? Yes, ma'am. JUDGE LAKE: Mr. Bovill, you claim for more
than 20 years, you held on to a secret and had no choice but
to confess your belief that Ms. Bovill's father
is another man. Is that correct? Yes, Your Honor. Ms. Bovill, tell me what
happened two years ago. Two years ago, I received
a phone call from another brother of mine,
stating that my dad had doubts
if he was my father or not due to activities that
happened before I was born. That was
during Thanksgiving on a holiday weekend, and... JUDGE LAKE: Can you
be more specific? You say "activities."
What kind of activities? He felt like my mom
was unfaithful, and was
doing things that wasn't right within
the relationship. JUDGE LAKE: Understood. So now, um, when I
got the phone call, I kind of brushed
it off, and then my brother, James,
was on the phone
with my dad and that's when I heard him,
out of his own mouth, say that he wanted to have a DNA test because he needed
his own closure, just to know if I was
his daughter or not. And how old were you when
this conversation happened? Twenty-five. JUDGE LAKE:
So, your whole life until you were 25 years old, you think this man
is your father. Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Duvall, what in the world are
you thinking when
your daughter gets this call? I was in shock. I had no clue
that he ever doubted that Carrie
was his daughter. Carrie was devastated... Well, I expect so. My daughter broke down,
and this is my only daughter. Mr. Bovill. BOVILL: Yes, Your Honor. You decided to make this call on Thanksgiving
weekend, sir? BOVILL: I asked one of my sons
for Carrie's number because I wanted to
share something with her. When I told my son
how I felt about this situation
that we're here today for, my son brought
the information to Carrie. What got you to this point?
What led you to this point where you said, "This is...
I have to talk about this"? Okay, well, when I
first met Regina, I lived in Boston, Regina lived
in Springfield. And when I relocated
from Boston to Springfield, first two weeks
that I got there, people I didn't
even know
was telling me, "Yo, this guy's telling me
that's his woman." And so, I goes
to Regina and I'm asking Regina,
"What's this guy
talking about? "I've only been in
this town for two weeks." This went on for, like... Ten years. Ten years? Ten years. And at the same time,
I even addressed it
to Regina. "Why does he keep
telling me that?" Even her brothers
had to go to him and check him on that. What's going on here,
Ms. Duvall? First of all, there is
no truth to none of this. What he just said? DUVALL:
Yes, let's start there. Second of all, Mr. Bovill, if you doubted me,
if you did not trust me, why did you stay? If you felt like that
all those years, you should have left. So, all of these years,
Mr. Bovill, you believed that
this other man, who's married to
a family member, could be Carrie's
biological father? Yes, Your Honor. What convinced me
was, four years ago, I went to North Carolina,
and I finally met some
of Carrie's cousins. And the person that
I'm talking to, one of her cousins,
is his granddaughter. Your Honor, if I had
a picture and showed
it to you right now, of her cousin, you would believe
that would be Carrie. If I showed you
her picture, you would
believe that was Carrie. And that's when
I said, you know, "I knew I was right.
I knew I was right." You saw a picture
of this man's granddaughter. Granddaughter. And it looks exactly like... I said, "That's my..."
And tears came out of my eyes. That's when I said, "I knew I was right.
I knew I was right." Uh, if you look at
anybody in my family, from my first cousins
down to my third cousins, we all have a same trait. One, we're all blind,
we all wear glasses. Two, we all smile
exactly the same <i> and the older I get,
the more I start looking
like my other cousin.</i> The older she gets,
another cousin starts
looking like me. It's in our genes. We all look alike. So, Mr. Bovill,
all of these years, you have these doubts... I had these doubts. ...but you never share them. BOVILL: The things
that went on before
Carrie was born, the relationship they had,
because her and this
person I'm talking about, I mean, after everybody was
telling me to keep my eyes
on her and watching her, now I'm watching them, too. They used to disappear
all the time, "Oh, he's my whist partner,
he was my best friend
before you came..." Your Honor,
first of all, we are
a very close-knit family. The grandchildren
are 70-plus deep of my mother's grands
and great-grands. And all of them look alike. But the one thing
that I did not want to happen here is that
my family values would
be tarnished with the babbling
and the things that
he is saying that has
no substance to them! JUDGE LAKE: So let me
ask you this. During the window of time
in which Carrie was conceived,
the question really becomes, were you
intimate with anyone else during that time... No, ma'am. ...where there could be
another potential father for
this beautiful young woman? No, ma'am. At the end of the day, in<i> Paternity Court,</i>
that's the question
we have to answer. JUDGE LAKE: Now,
what is interesting is in the court papers,
I found her birth certificate. <i> Now, on her birth certificate,
there is no father listed.</i> (STAMMERING) None of my names
are on none of my kids'
birth certificates. You didn't let him sign
the birth certificate,
Ms. Duvall? Ma'am, no,
that's not the case. Mr. Bovill never
took the time to go there and sign
those birth certificates. I told him,
time and time again, "You are a grown man. "Go to that hospital,
to wherever, and sign <i> "your children's
birth certificates!</i> <i> "I cannot sign them
for you!"</i> Like I said,
we all made mistakes. At the time, before
Carrie was born, we
both made mistakes. See what I'm saying? JUDGE LAKE: Yes. And I'm not holding
no grudge against her, but during 10 years
of living in Springfield, people that I didn't know
coming up to me,
see what I'm saying? Even when we moved
to South Carolina,
this same person was so infatuated with Regina...
Now, she's my wife now. Anything that I did
with my kids, he got mad. You are saying that
this gentleman interfered in your relationship,
in your parenting, so much, that you felt like
Ms. Duvall and this person, they were having
a relationship. BOVILL: Yes. And this was all occurring
during the window of time
in which Carrie was conceived
and born. This was going on
all of that time? Yes, Your Honor. Did he ever say anything
to you specifically about actually
being Carrie's father? Yes, he did. JUDGE LAKE:
What did he say? When I moved
to South Carolina, he'd go and say,
"That's my baby.
That's my baby." See what I'm saying? About Carrie? (BOVILL STAMMERING) Yeah, about Carrie.
"That's my baby.
That's my baby." That is a lie
straight from hell. BOVILL: Your Honor... That's a lie
straight from hell. So let me ask you this, and we are in court
and I need your answer
to be truthful. Why would they start
this type of rumor? Why? Especially a person
in the family. What would be the motive? DUVALL: The motive, to me, if he was saying
any of that, it was... The motive was
he was just a liar, too. Were you ever intimate
with this other man? No. For the
hundredth time, no. I wouldn't even think
about being in
nothing with this man. When Carrie was born,
even though I had these doubts,
I still loved her, and I treated her
like she was mine. CARRIE: How? How can you say...
How can you say that in court? How? Because, because... You have never!
You have never
been a father! (SOBBING) You have
never been a father! Stop lying like you have! (INDISTINCT ARGUING) Don't talk over her,
Mr. Bovill. BOVILL: All right. You came to
(INAUDIBLE) graduation, you ain't come to mine. You know what,
and I apologize
for that... No! No! 'Cause you have
never been a father. You had one birthday
party for me. You gave me... You say boxes of clothes, giving me things
is not being a father! I suffered because
I never had you! And you know what,
you did suffer. It's not fair... You know,
it's not fair, Carrie. I owe you an apology, Carrie. You know, I owe you
an apology. CARRIE: I have suffered, my brothers have suffered! Yeah, you've suffered. You did, and I owe you
an apology. Yes, you owe me an apology... JUDGE LAKE: Mr. Bovill? BOVILL: Yes, Your Honor? I'ma ask you one last time
to be... I'm so sick of
hearing your mouth. BOVILL: All right.
I won't say another word,
Your Honor I mean, just the sound
of your voice... I won't say nothing. ...in my ear right now, while this young girl
is trying to express to you what your absence,
what your dysfunction, what your mistakes
have cost her... Yes, you're right, Your Honor. Go ahead, Ms. Bovill. You say you
and your brothers
have suffered. CARRIE: We all have suffered. (SOBBING QUIETLY) (WHISPERING INAUDIBLY) CARRIE: (SOBBING)
I have let people hurt me because of you and not
having the love of a father. And if you have a father,
you would never understand what not having a father
does to you. Especially being
a black woman. And I love God
with all my heart, but... BOVILL: That was your mother
and your grandmother... It was not them! You are grown. They wouldn't let me
come see you. Mr. Bovill, don't make me
come off this bench! CARRIE: You are grown. And my mother had never,
even when we tried
to down-talk you, she used to say,
"No, that's still
your father!" My grandmother, my grandmother
would never... She brought us
to Massachusetts and sent us
to your mother. To visit you! My mother did that. My mother. CARRIE: How? My grandmother
brought us on a bus from South Carolina
to Massachusetts. BOVILL:<i> No, she didn't.
My mother did.</i> CARRIE:<i> That picture that
I sent here, with me
and his other daughter,</i> and my other two brothers
sitting on a couch was when we went
to Boston. That was the first time
I've been back to Boston since I was born
that I can remember. And when you went back,
did he make an attempt
to get to know you, to see you? He was in jail, so that
was the only way
I got to see him. I went a couple of years ago. My aunt that lives
in Massachusetts brought
me there for Christmas. And I went and stayed
with my sister. And I went and visited him,
and I spent the day with him
and that was it. But the entire time
we together, all he can talk about
is the past of him
and my mother. That has absolutely nothing
to do with me. I'm 25,
I'm not a child. I know what's going on.
I'm very intelligent,
I have a brain. I don't give two flying
bananas about what they've
done before me. He's talking about
"Ten years," but,
I don't care. It has nothing to do with me,
I'm the child here. And you have to be able,
in you, to get over that because I shouldn't be
doing this right now. I shouldn't be having
to do this with you. You are correct. You are correct. And you are
a smart young woman. And I think you can see
now, even for me, why I
am getting so agitated, because everybody's
talking in circles, everybody got stories, and I still don't have
a great description as to what the circumstances
were surrounding
your conception. That's really all
I'm here to get to. Because that really
is the end-all, be-all
of this particular saga. Mmm-hmm. JUDGE LAKE: This particular
moment in time is about that,
to get the answer you need. Now, I wanna hear your story,
and part of that is
your witness. And you brought someone
with you. I would like
you to stand, sir. Please. And state your name
for the court. James Bovill III. JUDGE LAKE: Please step to
the podium, Mr. Bovill, I'd
like to hear from you. And so Mr. Bovill
is your father. That's my father. JUDGE LAKE:
You're her brother. JAMES: Yes, ma'am. Okay, and you came to court
to testify today as to... JAMES: Me and my dad
have a close relationship
so, like, he had told me
this, like, four years ago, a few years ago when
he come down south, but you know,
I had brushed it off, you know, because it was
really like... I didn't really, like,
find it necessary to interrupt my sister
with this, so... I didn't tell her. So he mentioned it to you
but you decided not to say anything to your sister
at the time. Yeah, I didn't feel like
the time was right
or the place was right. JUDGE LAKE: What did he say
to you in particular? I mean, when he was
saying that family member, he was like,
"Don't she look
just like Carrie? "This could be
such-and-such's baby." So, only thing
I could go by
is what he believed and how he feel. I can't go off on, like... The only thing I could do
was just step in the gateway and be there for her,
which is my sister. Did he say he was not
Carrie's father or did he say
he wasn't sure? He said he wasn't sure. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. Thank you
for your testimony. Jerome? I'm ready
for the results. These result were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics,
and they read as follows. JUDGE LAKE:
In the case of<i>
Duvall/Bovill v. Bovill,</i> when it comes to
25-year-old
Carrie Bovill, it has been determined
by this court Mr. Bovill, you... Are the father. CARRIE: I knew
he was my father,
but now that he knows and he has
no more reason to doubt me as his daughter, I really just wanna
tell him that I'm so sorry
that you missed out. And I'm so sorry that you went through
all that you had
to go through, Dad. 'Cause I know it was
a bad time in both
of your lives, and I just wanna say that
I forgive you. (SOBBING) I forgive you
for everything. In this moment,
it is very valuable to just say,
"I know I hurt you, "but this is why I came today,
because I didn't want to miss
another minute." And, Carrie, you were right.
He missed out, and I think
he knows he did. And hopefully today,
this truth can be the start of
a new beginning for you all. We have counseling
and resources for you. I wish you all
the very best of luck. Court is adjourned. (APPLAUSE)
