Please be seated. -Hello, Your Honor.
-Hello. This is the case of<i>
Cohen v. Cohen.</i> Thank you, Jerome.
Good day, everyone. [audience] Good day. Mrs. Cohen, you have
opened your case
to prove to your husband that he is the father
of your one-year-old
son, Kyrie. You say your marriage
is on the verge of divorce,
because Mr. Cohen chooses to deny
your young son,
is that correct? Yes, ma'am. Mr. Cohen, you say
your wife brought
another man into your home and had sex with him
under your roof. -[audience exclaiming]
-Yes, Your Honor. You claim your trust
has been shattered and you're enduring
the ultimate betrayal of not knowing
whether or not
Kyrie is your son. Today's DNA results
will determine the fate
of your marriage,
is that correct? [Quari Cohen] Yes, Your Honor. So, Mrs. Cohen,
what is the current status
of your marriage? Um, right now
I'm trying to save
my marriage because we are
on the verge
of divorce. I want to prove to him
that he is the father
of our one-year-old son. He's my high school sweetheart,
we met in the 10th grade. We started dating,
we've been together for
seven years, married for three. And I just really want
to prove to him
and his family members that he is the father
of our one-year-old son. [Judge Lake] What are you
feeling right now? I'm just hurt a lot
'cause he makes it seem like I'm just the only one
that's out here cheating, when he's the one
cheating too. Like, he made me
feel like less of a woman when I had
our one-year-old son. I didn't feel pretty and it just
went from there. [Judge Lake] All right. Mr. Cohen,
here your wife is saying that you all have both
pretty much destroyed
the relationship together but now this paternity question
is taking it over the top. I see tears
in your eyes. -[Quari] Yes, Your Honor.
-It matters to you. -Yes.
-[Judge Lake]
What are you feeling? I'm just really hurt
right now that we had
to come this far
to get these answers. And I have had
lots of doubt
about Kyrie. And it would really hurt
if that does come back
that he's not my child today. It'd really hurt. And I love my wife
and I want us
to be together forever, but I can't get past this
if he's not my child today. -Is there a level
of guilt that you're feeling?
-[Quari] Yes. I do take blame
of starting our bad marriage off. I wasn't ready
to be a father
or a husband, to our oldest child but I took the role
and I tried as best
as I can. I didn't look at my wife
the same way after
she had him. And I was young, and I wanted
to do everything
my friends was doing. It wasn't the best choice
which led us here today. I appreciate
the honesty. -I do.
-[audience applauding] And I appreciate
you taking responsibility,
because it takes two to get into a marriage
and it takes two to get out. Mmm-hmm. Mr. Cohen,
how did you find out your wife was cheating? In April, me and Jasmine,
we broke up, we said we was gonna be
done with each other for good. We were still living
under the same roof
in the same house. Going into May,
we began to have sex again,
all that good stuff. I went through
Jasmine's phone one day
after we got back together and her phone was locked,
she had a passcode on it. So, me, I had to get
in that phone. I said, "Okay, what can I do?" I used all Jasmine's
ten fingers, all her finger
to unlock her iPhone. How? She had a lock
on her phone
with her finger. Right. So, how did
you use her finger? She was asleep
at the time and I put the...
I put her finger
on the phone, and she continued
to stay asleep. [Judge Lake] Wow. All right. [Quari] Yeah, so... As I was
going through the phone, I decided to check messages,
I was checking phone logs, photos, everything. So, I was, like, "Oh,
my wife's not cheating no more.
We're about to be happy." I was about
to lock the phone. Right when I was
about to lock the phone, I opened up
the notes in her phone and I see my name
at the top. I was, like, "Let me
click on this note,
why is my name there?" I clicked on the note
and there was two other names
under my name. I instantly realized that was the people
Jasmine had been
intimate with because my name
was first which I took
Jasmine's virginity, and there was
another name under it, of a guy who I knew
she slept with while we... Like,
we was on a break,
this was when we was younger. But then there was
a third name, I knew
nothing of that name. So, me, I went straight
to Instagram, -typed in the name, and...
-You were busy. [audience laughing] And you were doing this all
in the middle of the night? It wasn't even
actually night.
It was daytime. -Oh, all right.
-Yeah. -Go ahead, Inspector Gadget.
I'm, I'm...
-[audience laughing] So then you go to Instagram
and what happened? I went to Instagram,
I typed in the guy's name, and his name
popped up first, so I clicked
on that picture, and it was the guy. -I went in his DMs--
-How do you know
it was the guy? I actually... I went
into his DMs and I was, like,
"You're havin'
a baby, sir." And he replied
back to me, acting like he knew
exactly who I was. He was, like, "No, I only
slept with her one time. That's not my child. She told me nothin'
about her being pregnant
or anything." Then he blocked me
so there was no... To be fair,
I was already pregnant
when I slept with him. If you want more episodes
of Paternity Court Make sure to subscribe
and click on
the notification bell. Mrs. Cohen, who was this other guy
and how did you end up
cheating with him? We were on a break,
he went to stay with
one of his family members and I had to do
community service and I met him
at community service. And he was just telling me
that I'm beautiful
and all this other stuff. -[audience exclaiming]
-[Judge Lake] That right there,
I don't know. Was he doing
that voluntarily? Or was he ordered
to community service?
There's a difference. He was ordered,
but, um... I met him
at community service and when we took
our lunch break, he came back
to the house
and we had sex. But I was already pregnant,
he knew that I was
already pregnant. We just broke up. But we were not
having sex, Your Honor,
during our break up which was in April
during her conception. -We were not having sex.
-And I had sex with him in May. So that's impossible
for him to be
my child's father. Okay. That don't even
make sense. So, wait a minute.
You took this guy you met at
community service back to your
marital home that you share
with your husband, and had sex with him? [Jasmine] My husband
was cheating too. So, to be fair,
I was getting him back.
That's all that it was. He was cheating,
and he made me... My husband
has made me feel so low. He's chosen females
over me, plenty of times. So it's my time
to get back at him. So I was just doing
what I wanted to do. [audience exclaiming] Was the sex unprotected? -With who?
-With the community
service guy. Oh. Yes. [audience exclaiming] So, Mr. Cohen,
soon after this incident, you find out
your wife is pregnant. -[Quari] Yes.
-Take me to that day. I wasn't happy at all,
to be honest, because I wasn't ready
to have another child and we was already
in a bad place. So... During that time
that was when we were
still broken up. I was in and out
of the home doing what I wanted
to do with other people. A month or two later, we decide to get back together, in the home,
but also during... When she first
became pregnant in April, we were not having sex. I don't remember us
having sex at all. We was having sex every day. I do not...
I do not remember us
having sex at all. [Jasmine]
We was having sex every day like, literally, like
two times a day. Even when he got off work,
even when he get off work like, six o'clock
in the morning,
we was having sex. That's not true.
'Cause I was not...
I was barely there. No. He was probably busy,
too busy having sex
with other females that he couldn't remember
he was having sex with me. That's probably
what was goin' on. [woman] Right. Wow. But if your husband's
testimony is correct and you weren't
having sex in April because y'all said
you were on this break, and Kyrie was born
on January 5th... [Jasmine] Mmm-hmm. ...when you count back,
January... Nine months,
that goes back
to the period of time when he says
you weren't having sex. [Jasmine] Mmm-hmm.
But we were. I do not remember us
having sex, Your Honor. You are funny. I promise you
I don't remember it. So, in addition
to the timeline, Mr. Cohen, you claim
you have medical proof... Yes, Your Honor. ...that you have
a reason to doubt the paternity of Kyrie. -Yes, Your Honor.
-What is that? I have Type 2 diabetes. And I was, actually,
I didn't have no insurance,
at that time so it was uncontrolled. Meaning my sugars
were always high, so every time
I would ejaculate,
my semen would become weird and they wouldn't...
They can't travel, it... So how did
I get pregnant, Quari? Well, I was about to say.
You all do have another child
together, right? Yes, Your Honor. I didn't have diabetes
at the time. So because of this...
This is very interesting. I do want to call on
a medical expert. Jerome, will you please escort
Dr. Eddie Richardson Jr.
into the courtroom? Yes, Your Honor. [Jerome] Go right up
to the witness stand
next to the judge. Hello, Dr. Richardson. [Dr. Richardson]
Hello, Your Honor.
How are you doing? Great. Thank you
so much for joining us. I have a couple
of questions for you. We are speaking
to the Cohen family
about a paternity issue surrounding their
15-month-old son, Kyrie. Mr. Cohen has stated
that he was diagnosed
with Type 2 diabetes which he believes
prevented him
from impregnating his wife. So can Type 2 diabetes
affect the sperm
and its function is my first question. Yeah, two things
come to mind immediately that affects fertility
of men, that's one,
erectile dysfunction where a man cannot have
meaningful sex or sexual encounter,
and two, the decrease
in testosterone which would definitely
decrease the sperm count. Also, another part
of that is, there's decreased
seminal fluid as well, which is, kind of,
what Mr. Cohen
is referring to, caused by Type 2 diabetes. [audience exclaiming] Ah! So when he says
that he would experience, I guess, a thickening
of the semen fluid, you say that is
a reduction in the fluid and does that
affect the sperm's ability to fertilize an egg
or travel? Now, you gotta be
a little bit careful because it only decreases
by about 40%, so you still have a lot
of sperm cells floating around but it still should travel. [Judge Lake]
So in a case like Mr. Cohen's where he admittedly
was not on any medication, and he said his sugar
was always high, can diabetes affect his ability
to have a child? Absolutely.
That part is correct. Because there's
a couple of things that go on. Not only do you
have the decreased
sperm cell count, you also gotta look
at how long he had it, and I think
it's been a couple of years. You gotta look at
whether his blood sugar was controlled or not,
that's gonna affect
how it works. And then how healthy he was
leading up to it. But still, men that have
decreased sperm cell count as well as diabetes
are able to father a child. [Judge Lake] All right,
so, the truth is, even though it's less likely,
than a healthy male, it is still possible. Absolutely.
Because, you know,
it only takes one sperm cell
to fertilize eggs. -All right.
-You hear that?. So after hearing
this testimony, Mr. Cohen, do you feel differently
about your paternity doubts? [Quari] She still
slept with another man. So there's still doubt
inside of me. So, Mrs. Cohen, have you remained
in touch with this other man? No. Why would I do that? That was nothing. I just want to prove to him
and his family because his family
treats my baby
completely different than our first child,
like, she didn't... When I had him,
they didn't post him
on their Facebook, they didn't buy him
nothing for his birthday,
like they treat him different, than my other son
that we have together. I know that, in their hearts
they don't believe that
this is their blood. So I just wanna
prove to them, really, them... It's not more so, him,
'cause I already know
who my baby daddy is. And I was in foster care
up until I turned 18, and I signed myself out, so I really don't want
my children to have
that type of life, 'cause we've been
through so much and I really
applaud my husband for steppin' up
and being there
for his kids and bein' a great husband. 'Cause he really
is a great husband
and a father. [audience applauding] And when you hear
your wife speak,
Mr. Cohen, why does that
make you emotional? I see the tears
in your eyes. For her to say this
today, in court, it really made me
happy to hear that. 'Cause I have heard dead-beat
and all these other words previous times in arguments,
so it feels good. [audience] Aw! You all are young people, and having a baby
and becoming parents
is one thing, trying to navigate marriage
is a different thing. So both of you
have very serious issues
that you need to talk about, or we'll end up
here again. All right.
I think we've had
enough testimony. Jerome, I'm ready
for the results. Yes. [audience whooping] These results
were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of<i>
Cohen v. Cohen,</i> when it comes to fifteen-month-old
Kyrie Cohen, it has been determined
by this Court, Mr. Cohen, you... are the father. [Jasmine] I told you. [Quari] Oh, my God.
I'm so happy. I owe you an apology.
Be quiet. You can stand
with your wife, you can
stand with your husband. [audience] Aw! I tell you, I mean,
some of the best
life lessons come from
the hugest mistakes. That's just
the way it goes. This should be
an important lesson
to you both. And it shouldn't take
coming to<i> Paternity Court,</i> to figure out
how much you both
mean to one another. So I don't want you
to feel like just because
you made huge mistakes -in your marriage,
that it's over.
-Right. Or the chance
to make it right is over. Because it's never too late
for a brand new start. You guys can do the work
to put this thing
back together, if you want. And I hope
this paternity answer
will break that wall down. We have counseling
and resources
for you both. I wish you all
the very best. -You're such
a beautiful couple.
-[both] Thank you. And I want you all
to make it through
this, all right? -Thank you.
-Take care of
those beautiful children. Court is adjourned.
