You may be seated. Hello Your Honor. Hello, Ron. This is the case of <i>
Perry v. Davis.</i> Thank you. Good
day everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. Ms. Perry, you claim
to have a daughter with the defendant, Mr. Davis.
And now, you wanna prove that he also fathered your
one-month-old son, Adonis. Is that correct? PERRY: Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Mr. Davis, you say any trust you had
for Ms. Perry went out the window
once you learned you were not the only man climbing through hers. Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: All right,
you say you're 1,000% certain that you are not Adonis'
father, and encourage Ms. Perry to go find who is. All right, so
Ms. Perry tell me, why you feel Mr. Davis
is denying your son? Because he's too busy hanging
around with his homeboys, getting into every other
woman he can find, and just too busy to take care
of his responsibilities. JUDGE LAKE: Is that true,
Mr. Davis? No, Your Honor,
it's not correct. JUDGE LAKE: Why are
you denying it? Does she want me? I mean,
you know what I'm saying, it's always, it's
never about the kid. It's always about, "Oh,
do you wanna be with me?" or, "Let's date." That's a lie, that is a lie. Nobody wants you. You wanna think that
everybody is about you. It's not about you at
the end of the day. Regardless of what happens
between me and you, it's about our kid. That's all
I ever wanted from you. If you don't
have no money, then spend time, that's
all you got to do. I never made it hard
for you to see your kid. Don't try to play me like
that. Don't try to play me. I can't stand it. I, I, I'm,
it's hard right now for me. It's like, yes I did
care for him, I did. But till I found
out his true colors, that all went out the window,
you know what I'm saying? I was always there for
him, he cannot say that. I don't know, what type of
vendetta he got against me. I never done nothing to him,
you know what I'm saying? I always wanted to be there. DAVIS: She's depressed
about our relationship. It's not about you, man.
It's not about you. JUDGE LAKE: <i> You say
he just doesn't have time</i> <i> 'cause he's running around
with his friends.</i> PERRY: Yes, he's got
a girlfriend, he's
got a baby mama, he got this one,
he got that one.
They're both claiming him. So which one are you with? I'm not gonna be
a part of that triangle. You think you're
really that good? You're not that good, man. What if it don't prove... You're not, you're not. You're not,
you're not. You're so high and mighty,
I don't know
what they see in you, but obviously, yeah,
I was young and dumb. DAVIS: We're
here for a reason. I learned my mistakes.
I learned my mistakes. Honestly, it happened twice,
I know I can't fault him
for everything. We're here for a reason. But at the end of the day, it's just not right. She don't know what
she's talking about. I'm not gonna be sitting
in this little love
triangle that you have. So I have never been
there for the baby? I have, I have. You have, Your Honor,
he's been... Have you been there
for the baby, Mr. Davis? Yes. Yes ma'am, I have. He was there for her for,
like, the first six months.
He started slacking off. He'd come every now and then. Every two, three months
he'd come, pop in
for about 30 minutes, she'd cry and
have a fit on the floor, then he'd leave,
onto the next. Why, why sit around
for a kid who's gonna cry? JUDGE LAKE: I wanna
understand what's
going on here, 'cause it's obvious
there's a lot of water
under this bridge. How did you all get together? DAVIS: Oh, we met... Social media. DAVIS: We met
on the Internet. PERRY: Social media. We met like that.
It was a friends-
with-benefits situation. I see him, he sees me,
we're gonna blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I started caring
for him, or whatever. But you know,
that's just me, maybe I was just
missing something and I felt like he was that
missing person that I needed. You met on the Internet? PERRY: Yes. And you all, what,
talked over... For about a week.
We probably talked
about a week, then we met up.
Did whatever we did, which was about two times, and the next thing you
know, "Oh, I'm pregnant." After, "Oh,
I'm pregnant"... But you know it just
takes one time, right? Yes ma'am, I do, I do. We both had a child prior to meeting
each other. Three months before
we met each other, we both had a child, which is the same age. So you both came
into this relationship with children? PERRY: Yes. Then you met
on the Internet site and then you all start
sleeping together? DAVIS: Yes. And that's when you got pregnant with Skylar,
your older daughter? PERRY: <i> Yes ma'am.</i> JUDGE LAKE: <i> Okay.</i> PERRY: <i> We saw each
other, like, two times.</i> I found out
little bit after... No. ...that I was pregnant
and I told him
that I was pregnant. And he said, well, he
would need a DNA test 'cause he's been through
that situation before. I said, "Okay, cool. "You can get one
all you want to, but
I'm not paying for it, "'cause I know, who
my baby daddy is." After all of that, he just
came to accept Skylar or did you have the DNA test? We never, he
never paid for it, he came up, he didn't
come when she was born, 'cause I guess he
was working then. But when he came
to the hospital, he said, "Oh she looks
just like my other son." JUDGE LAKE: Did you
ask for a DNA test when it came
to Skylar, Mr. Davis? Yes ma'am, I did. JUDGE LAKE: You did. Yes. JUDGE LAKE: Did you
ever have one? DAVIS: No ma'am. So that's true, you never got the DNA test. No, it's just that... JUDGE LAKE: But you accept
Skylar as your daughter. Yeah, I mean that was my,
you know what I'm saying, my first daughter,
so I was younger, and more naive, I guess
that'd be the word... PERRY: You still is. So, more open to it,
you know what I'm saying? But if you had doubts,
why did you say, "Oh I'm glad
you're having my daughter"? DAVIS: Because
I was young. If it was a boy,
it would be a Junior, if it was a girl,
Davis would be
her last name, blah, blah, blah
and now you wanna flip the script
all of a sudden. DAVIS: I want to know,
what's the reason, why this little boy,
if you feel like that's my baby,
why he ain't got
my last name now then? Because I'm not
gonna give no man... Yo, you have to earn
to have a child, you know. My point proven. She got my last name. PERRY: My son
has my last name. Hey, you have to deserve
it, just 'cause you... JUDGE LAKE: Whoa, hold on
now, Ms. Perry, Ms. Perry,
take a breath. Take a breath. PERRY: 'Cause I got
a lot to say, and I've been
going through a lot. JUDGE LAKE: Look,
I can tell you have,
and I wanna understand it, but you have not
taken a breath and I don't want you to
skip too far in the story, so that I miss
some important pieces as how two people, I can tell cared a little
bit about each other. How you get here? You said, at first he
asked for the DNA test
when it came to Skylar, then you said, "If you
wanna pay for it." He never paid for it. So then he just accepted,
and you said you
were younger then. So you were a
little more open, you just said,
"You know what? Okay." Who would do that?
If you're denying it,
why would you do that? Why would you
agree to a child... JUDGE LAKE: But then
I wanna get to the point
where after you have Skylar, do you all stay
in a relationship, are you still... PERRY: No. We was never,
we never did... We never was
in a relationship. JUDGE LAKE: So you
didn't date at all? BOTH: No. So you all just
went on back
to your own lives? But were you having sex? Yeah, we were but it
was never, it was just... JUDGE LAKE: It was a
sexual relationship. Yeah. Okay, all right look,
you both agree to that, so no one contests it. So you accepted Skylar, then you keep having
this sexual relationship and then you get
pregnant with Adonis. How do you tell him? I told him, I called him,
I say, "I think I
might be pregnant." He said, "Ha ha ha,"
and hung up the phone. JUDGE LAKE: When she says,
"Hey I'm pregnant," why you got to act like
a dog and just hang up? PERRY: 'Cause
that's what he is. I don't think
I'm the only one. JUDGE LAKE: So
explain that to me. You hung up, why? Why would you do
something so rude to a woman you've
acknowledged is the mother
of your older daughter. Because every time
I come to see Skylar, when I come out,
it's always
her on the porch and a group of dudes.
So one day, I come over, I come over to visit. And when I come, she runs
straight to the bathroom. She runs to her room,
then runs in the bathroom, she stays in the bathroom
for about five, ten minutes. Her sibling runs out,
he's like,
"Oh yeah, oh yeah." He's calling me her
ex-boyfriend's name. He kept calling,
so I'm like, "Shh." I said, "Where he
at? Where he at?" "Oh he just left."
That was one reason. And you want to
know something? One day we go to like
a little music festival,
whatever, downtown. So, she's holding the baby,
we're just walking
and taking, whatever. Her ex-boyfriend,
she sees him, you know
what I'm saying? "Oh!" Runs up to him,
"Oh!" Putting her hands
all in his face, arguing with him,
you know what I'm saying? I'm like, "Oh that's a lot
for somebody that you
don't deal with no more." So when she starts
arguing with the ex, you felt like, "Oh, maybe this
this is unfinished business," that they still
may be together. So when Adonis is conceived,
was there anything going on <i> that would indicate
to you that she may be
sleeping with someone else?</i> The window situation.
Could I explain? JUDGE LAKE: Yes! All right so, one day, I'm too drunk
to drive home, I left the club,
so I called Keiara, once I get there, I'm sitting
outside about ten minutes, "Keiara, can I crash here?" She's like, "Oh yeah,
well, my mom, she's gonna
have a problem with that, "but you can come
through the window." So when I come in,
the window was sitting down. When you break a window
from the other side,
from the inside out, you can't, it's not made for
you to put the window back in, so the window
was broken in an A, you know what I'm saying,
in an A shape right here. This was bent, and it
was sitting right here, and didn't have enough time
to fix all that up. The window's
already sitting there, means somebody had already
jumped through this window. PERRY: First of all,
I live in a neighborhood where the maintenance
ain't even good, that's why
the window's like that. DAVIS: All right, correct. JUDGE LAKE: Oh! So you thought,
the way you got in, somebody else got in, too. Yes! Yes. JUDGE LAKE: But they didn't
put the window back. She ain't saying
nothing about it. JUDGE LAKE: Were you
letting other men through
the window, Ms. Perry? No, no, absolutely not. Of course not. No, no, no, no. What are you feeling
right now, Ms. Perry? It's just, I don't
know, like... He just makes me feel bad,
like I'm less than somebody, because I really
did care about him. So when you have somebody
that you care about talk to you like that,
it's just like, it makes me feel like
I'm less of a woman, because I'm going
through this situation. I have three kids,
I'm a single parent. I go to work,
I'm going to school. It's just, I don't have
transportation, I can barely get them
a ride to their
doctor's appointments. It's hard, and for him to feel
this way about me, it's not
right, it's really not right. JUDGE LAKE: <i> And I can see
it upsets you 'cause</i> <i> you feel like you let
yourself down.</i> PERRY: <i> Yes it does.</i> <i> I never been in
trouble in my life,</i> I've never done
anything wrong, and it's just like
now that I have kids, I've lost friends,
I lost a lot of people, and it's not fair
that he treats me like that
'cause I did nothing to him. I did not, I just want
what was best for my kids. I want my kids to
know his other kids. I want my kids to know
his grandparents, and it's not fair because
the baby mama he's with now,
she gets all the attention. Her kids are the center
of attention. Your family is cool with her. They won't even take
a second look at me. I think his doubt around
Adonis really hurts you. PERRY: Yes, it does. Because you all have been in this sexual
relationship, on and off, for years now,
couple of years. You're right. And now it's like his
other children's mother,
their children, then they get attention
that you feel like your
children deserve. PERRY: Yes,
that's all I want. But see, when you lay
down with a man with no obligation,
in the dark, you can't be surprised
that you come out invisible. He can't see you. You understand
what I'm saying? If you are okay with being
the take it or leave it girl, you have to understand
that there is a chance,
he's gonna leave it. Right? Right. JUDGE LAKE: So, sometimes
when I see young women and I hear them talking
about, "Oh it was just sex, "wasn't nothing to me,
wasn't nothing to me." But they are so
emotional and irate. And I know that comes
from a place of you wanting to be more
than what it really is. (APPLAUSE) So you say, he finally stepped
up and he accepted Skylar. Does he do anything
for Adonis? No, he's not,
haven't seen him at all. I show him pictures,
I message he pictures
on Facebook. Skylar looks like him.
The baby look like him. JUDGE LAKE: You
don't think so? No ma'am. JUDGE LAKE: What is this
that you are handing? Officer Ron, Ron would you
hand me this evidence, please? On the left is the
picture of Adonis, on right is the picture
of my daughter Aubry. JUDGE LAKE: So this is
side-by-side photos, on the left Adonis,
and then on the right,
your daughter Aubry. <i> And you believe they
look nothing alike?</i> No, I don't think so. PERRY: Here's the
pictures right here,
Skylar do look like... Let me see that please, Ron. He's a month old,
his facial features
haven't even come in already. They have the same eyes
and stuff like that. My kids even
look like his mother. JUDGE LAKE: <i> So, on this photo
you have, side by side,
pictures of Skylar and Adonis.</i> Now, Skylar, you say,
is your biological daughter. DAVIS: Mmm. Yeah. PERRY: See. Yes. JUDGE LAKE: So you have
questions, so this court
has administered a DNA test for Skylar as well,
since you never had one. DAVIS: Yes. JUDGE LAKE: Have you made
an effort with Adonis? No, no. Has Mr. Davis
provided financially
at all for Adonis? He did, he did but...
He did the first six months, and then he started doing like
every other month or every other two months
and stuff like that,
back and forth. He didn't do it consistently. He came and saw her
every two, three months. Show up, pop up
for a little while and then leave out
with his homies. JUDGE LAKE: Is that
true, Mr. Davis? No, ma'am. JUDGE LAKE: Have you
spent quality time
with Skylar and with Adonis? I don't, for one,
when she had Adonis,
I was out of town. I was in Chicago. In the midst of that,
when I came back we got
into a whole argument. Got into an argument
with her friend, I'm not gonna come around
if there's gonna be
drama like that. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Perry,
I have to ask you, were you dealing
with anybody else? He was, and you knew that. Yes, but it wasn't
around the time I conceived,
that was afterwards. No, no. That's... No. One day,
we got into it. So, I just asked,
"So who you been
chilling with lately?" You know what I'm
saying, just asking. One of my homeboys
whispered something in my ear,
letting me know something. So I just asked,
you know what I'm saying, "Who you been
kicking with lately?" "Well, I let this guy
perform...on me, but
we never did anything." I'm a man.
No, that ain't happening without other thing happening,
you know what I'm saying? It ain't going down like that. JUDGE LAKE: I wanna
get this together. Yes, please. JUDGE LAKE: And I want
to get you all the
answers you need to be able to figure out
how to move forward. 'Cause this right here,
you're all getting nowhere. Ron, may I have
the envelope please? We have two of them. Now, we have two
sets of results. The first one is for Adonis. These results were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics, and they read as follows. In the case of<i>
Perry v. Davis,</i> when it comes to
one-month-old Adonis Perry, it has been determined
by this court, Mr. Davis, you... ...are the father. That's good. JUDGE LAKE: You said,
"That's good." So you're happy your
doubts are alleviated? Yeah, I'm happy to get
that out of the way. That's all he is,
is something
out of the way. He still ain't going
to do nothing
after we leave here. Can we read
the next one, please? JUDGE LAKE: Absolutely. Thank you. The next results
are for Skylar. In the case of<i>
Perry v. Davis,</i> when it comes to
22-month-old Skylar Davis, it has been determined
by this court, Mr. Davis, you... ...are not her father. Got ya! Got ya. JUDGE LAKE: Let's
be respectful. (CHUCKLING) JUDGE LAKE: You're not
the father, Mr. Davis,
of Skylar. What? He's not Skylar's biological
father, Ms. Perry. DAVIS: Stressing me up. That was the only one... I mean, I wouldn't even
lie about something like that. So, do you have any idea
who Skylar's father is? I may have. Then you know that
you was wrong. Because when I got
pregnant with my daughter, the time period, I was not
messing with nobody else. JUDGE LAKE: Well, you were. The DNA just doesn't lie, it doesn't, its absolute. What are you two gonna do? I guess, I stay out of his way
and he can stay out of mine. JUDGE LAKE: But you gotta
learn how to co-parent. You're all just not
finished with one another. I mean, as disgusted
as you may be
with one another, you're not finished. You got to figure out
how to get along, you gonna have to figure out
how to be there for Adonis, and for Skylar, too,
let's be honest, because right now,
Skylar's going to be
in a difficult transition. Just think, up
until this point, she thought you
were her daddy. But now you're her
brother's daddy,
and not hers. This is a difficult situation. You all gotta find
your way through this, you all gotta take
this seriously, quit with this petty
back-and-forth nonsense
that is getting us nowhere. I wish you all
the very best of luck. Court is adjourned.
