Please be seated. Hello, Your Honor Hello. This is the case of<i>
Walls v. Walker.</i> Thank you, Jerome.
Good day, everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. Mr. Walls, you say that after spending
a short time away
from Ms. Walker, you caught her with
someone else's hands
in her cookie jar. Yes, Your Honor All right,
you say Ms. Walker is a serial cheater,
and there is no way
you are her child's father. Yes, Your Honor Additionally, Mr. Walls, you claim you lent
Ms. Walker your car
to help her with her child, and she never gave it back,
so you are suing her
for $2,500. Yes, Your Honor All right, Ms. Walker,
you say Mr. Walls is
a sweet-talking liar, who knows very well he's the
father of your three-year-old
daughter, Adriana. And you intend to
prove that today,
is that correct? WALKER: Yes, Your Honor JUDGE LAKE: So Mr. Walls, how did you get in
this relationship? Well, I worked across
the street from where
Dominique stayed. And when Dominique would
walk out of her house,
going down the street, I went "Hey, how you doing!"
you know, trying to
catch her attention. So I kept pursuing her.
"Hey, how you doing?
Can I call you?" You know, and, uh,
eventually I got tired of just
standing across the street, asking her, "Can I call..." I ran across the street
and started walking
down the street, to the gas station,
with her. You know, and uh,
eventually she
gave me her number. Eventually. About,
probably, a couple
months, me pursuing her. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) Okay, all right, well,
you were persistent, so you asked
her on a date? Yes. So, um... We started going out. Um... It's a little park
called Belle Isle,
where we live at. JUDGE LAKE: In Detroit? Yeah. I'm from Detroit,
I love Belle Isle.
All right. WALLS: Oh, yeah,
that's the stuff,
right there. So, we started going
out there, you know, spending time by the water.
I felt it was romantic,
you know. And so, Ms. Walker? WALKER: Yes, Your Honor He seemed like
he was a gentleman, courting you,
you went out with him? Yes, Your Honor It was a good
relationship at first? It was good
in the beginning. Until I found out
I was pregnant. And when I found out
I was pregnant, I told him. But he talked about
he wanted a DNA test, and I told him, we can
do a DNA test, because... He said he saw me
in a car with another guy around the same time
I got pregnant. It was true, but
it was a family member. No, it wasn't.
I know her momma, I know both her sisters, and I ain't never
seen this dude, period. Not never a day in my life. (BOTH ARGUING
INDISTINCTLY) JUDGE LAKE: Okay,
wait, wait, wait, it started off
so good, on Belle Isle. WALKER: Yeah, it was. (LAUGHS) Wait a minute. It was good at first, right? Yes, Your Honor Until you told him
you were pregnant? Yes, Your Honor Now, when she told you
she was pregnant, Mr. Walls,
you weren't excited about it? Were you all boyfriend
and girlfriend at this
point, or what? WALKER:
We were separated then. WALLS: No, 'cause... We were separated. I was, I was absent
for about 30 days.
Unfortunately, I was... JUDGE LAKE: Okay. ...not nowhere near her. JUDGE LAKE: Away. Away. Did this turn into
a real relationship,
is the point? Um... Okay, that took too long.
So it was not a relationship. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) So you all
were having sex... WALLS: Yeah. ...without protection,
but not in a relationship. Pretty much. So, when she told you
she was pregnant
and it was your child, you had doubt. Yeah. Your Honor, when I told him
I was pregnant, and he had said, "Well, I need
to take a DNA test," because he said
he didn't trust me... WALLS: But she admitted
to cheating, though. 'Cause when I was gone,
for those 30 days,
she admitted to cheating. JUDGE LAKE: Did you
admit to cheating? No, Your Honor. I asked her,
I asked her, I asked... No. ...she, I asked her,
specifically, I said
"When I was gone, "have you been seeing
anybody else?" She said no. I asked
her again, I asked her again,
I asked her again. She finally said yes! She was talking
to another guy,
when I was gone. That's what you said.
That's what you
admitted to me. We in court and you
still lying? Oh, my God. Oh, Lord. She admitted...
Now, if she hadn't
admitted this, I wouldn't have my doubts
about this baby. This is why I got my doubts,
because she admitted this. What did she say
to you exactly? She exactly said that, yes,
she was talking to another guy when I was gone and
not in the picture. JUDGE LAKE: Talking,
or more than talking? (SCOFFS) "Talking" in Detroit
is more than talking. (ALL LAUGHING) I'm glad you said it
and not me. Um... (ALL LAUGHING) No, no, seriously, though,
so the point is
you thought she meant, "I'm dating someone else." Yeah, she had to have been,
because when... I come up her street one day,
I'm in a different car. I come up her street one day, and I see this blue
Crown Victoria parked
in front of her house. I see two silhouettes
in the car. I seen the silhouettes... Is this, you brought
an exhibit over here? WALLS: Yeah,
that's what that is. Well, I'd like to see it.
Step over to your exhibit
and explain it to me. All right. This is, okay... Now explain to me
what's happening? Okay.
This is Fenkell right here,
this is where I used to work. This is her house
over here on Quincy. So, I worked across
the street from her... Her house. Now... I'm coming down Fenkell
from my house on Ohio, coming down Fenkell.
I turn on her block... I look at the car in the
driveway, like, what the what?
So I said, "Wait a minute." I goes all the way
back around the corner, come back, slow down. I look, like, "No, that don't
look like Dominique
in that car. "That ain't
Ms. Walker, like, no." So I said, "Forget it."
I drive on around again... I'm going around again... You on your third lap? WALLS: Yeah, I'm on
my third lap, now! (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I'm doing the Hollywood stop,
now, like, "Yeah, that's her. "That's her in the car,"
and then I confronted
her about that. I said... "You're supposed to be
pregnant with my baby, "and you're sitting in the car
with this other guy." And what did she say? She said, "Um, whatever I do
is my business." I said, "It looked like
you was leaning over,
kissing the guy!" (SIGHS) Step back over
to the podium, sir. Thank you for that,
um, description. Number one, Your Honor, the car wasn't in
the driveway. The car was
in front of my house. And he told me... WALLS: So you admit it? (AUDIENCE GASPS) Right here, the car
was in front of your house. Right, in front of... And you was in the car. I admit that... You was in the car.
You was in the car. You was in the car. But I'm not about to admit,
because I was not cheating. Was there a man
in the car with you? What you doing
in the car with a man? Yes, there was. What you doing
in the car with him, then? It was a family member. Oh, get the... Boy, I... It was one of my family
members came over to check on me,
because I was calling him
the same day. I was calling him,
calling him, calling him. WALLS: If I had a nickel. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) If I had a nickel. Me and my kids' momma,
we was still living together
when I was talking to her. (AUDIENCE MURUMRS) She knew this, though.
It wasn't no big
secret to her. She knew this. JUDGE LAKE: So, wait now, you lived with another
woman when you all met? Yeah. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. WALLS: She knew
about it, though! It wasn't like I was
keeping a secret.
I wasn't hiding nothing. You were still
in this relationship? I wouldn't technically
say I was in a relationship
with her or her. I was just... Really, right now,
waiting for these people
to move out my house, so I could move into my house
and get away from her, and not, uh, you know... It's kind of complicated,
but I was working it out! You were in transition. WALLS: We can call it that. Uh-huh. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) We can call it that. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. So, bottom line is,
you weren't really
claiming either woman. Not necessarily. Okay. But you were just circling
around her house three times,
checking what she's doing? Well, she said she's pregnant
by me, I was just making sure
her well-being was okay... (GASPS) JUDGE LAKE:
But the point is this... (SCOFFS) At that point,
she's already pregnant. Uh, yeah, pretty much. So, did anything happen
before she got pregnant that
would make you suspicious? I called her phone,
she said she at home. I go to her house, knock on the door,
her momma come
downstairs and say, "Dominique not here,
Dominique went over to
her godsister's house." I just talked to Dominique.
She said she was home. This happened
a couple of times. No, Your Honor. No, you are... Oh, my gosh, I wish
her momma was here. Because, we gonna start
from the time he said he was
living with his baby momma. He was telling me,
he was gonna promise
to leave her, so he could be
with me and my child. But, it has not
happened like that. Hold on. Throughout
the pregnancy,
you were by yourself? WALKER: Yes, Your Honor. He didn't help you go to
doctor's appointments, any of that stuff? No, Your Honor, nothing.
He was not there. JUDGE LAKE:
Was he at the birth? No. JUDGE LAKE: Is he on
the birth certificate? You wanna know why? Let's not get there. No. Let's not get there,
why I wasn't at the birth. Let's get that together. He came, he came, after I had the baby,
he came at 7:00 that night. WALLS: You called me
at 7:00 that day! No. No, no. Your Honor,
this woman called me. She called me and said,
"I had the baby." I said, "When did
you have the baby?"
She said, "Yesterday." I said, "Dominique,
it's 7:00." WALKER: I was in labor. It was 7:00. She didn't
call me till the next day. WALKER: I called him... He was ready, Ms. Walker,
why didn't you call him? I called him
when my water broke. WALLS: No, you did not. My mom is my witness. I called him
when my water broke. Ooh, I need
a stack of Bibles. I called him, didn't answer. No, you did not. WALKER: Didn't answer phone,
text messages, nothing. The problem is that since he's
still with the other woman, when you callin',
he can't pick up the phone. We know what's
happening here. That may be true... JUDGE LAKE: Yeah. That may be true a little bit. JUDGE LAKE: I major
in truth in this courtroom. Okay. We know.
I'm from Detroit, too. WALLS: I know
that's right. (LAUGHS) So you can't out-talk me. I know 100 percent
that he is the father. Because... When we went out
for the first time,
he was in a motorcycle club. And we went there,
and stuff like that,
we was talking, we were having
a good time, a good night. And one thing
lead to the next,
I'm on the pool table! WALKER: And we
did not use protection. Oh! Was it operating hours? WALLS: No, no, no... No, it wasn't. The club that I had
belonged to, you know,
as a member, you could have
a key to the bar. Okay. The baby
was conceived on
the corner pocket? (ALL LAUGHING) Okay. Got it. JUDGE LAKE: We got it,
we got it, we got it. So... Any other doubt
that you've left out? All my other kids,
I had symptoms,
you know what I'm saying? I woke up, I'm feeling like...
I'm puking up a little bit, I'm feeling a little nauseous.
And with her, her pregnancy, I had none of that. How many other
kids do you have? I got five other kids. (AUDIENCE MURMURS) Okay. You had pregnancy
symptoms with all five? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. You did? We hear this a lot in
the courtroom, and I want
to learn more about that, so I'm calling upon an expert.
Jerome, will you please escort Dr. Tosha Rogers from
Atlanta Premiere OB/GYN
into the courtroom? JEROME: Sure. Go ahead and go on
right up to the witness
stand, next to the judge. Thank you so much
for joining us today. Mr. Walls, our plaintiff,
has said as part
of his testimony that in his five other
children, he would feel
pregnancy-like symptoms. What is this thing? Okay. Um, it actually does exist, and it's called
Couvade syndrome. Couvade syndrome? Couvade syndrome. Yes, and it varies
to different degrees. It could be very minimal,
something a dad
doesn't even notice, like love handles, and he figures he's getting
a little bigger 'cause
mom's eating more... Um, to nausea, vomiting,
abdominal pain. So it does certainly exist. So it's a real syndrome,
it's a real thing? Yes. There's, like,
scientific basis for it? We know that, hormonally,
males get an increase
in female hormones. They get an increase
in estrogen and
a few more things. JUDGE LAKE: When
a woman's pregnant? Yes. Now it can vary based on
their closeness, or their
cohabitation with the woman. So they may feel it more
if they live with the woman, or if they identify more
with the pregnancy. And you all weren't
living together when she
was pregnant, right? WALLS: No. Right. What bearing does it have
on paternity? Any? No. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) I'm sorry, no, it doesn't. JUDGE LAKE:
I'm sorry, Mr. Walls. I mean, you know... Mr. Walls, for your other
five children, were you living
with the mother at that time? Yeah. Yes. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. So that could be the reason
why you didn't necessarily
feel it with Ms. Walker, 'cause as I just asked you
a moment ago, you all
weren't living together. No. All right. So, Mr. Walls, before we get to
the paternity results, I wanna deal
with your suit. You're suing for $2,500. WALLS: Yes. You say you lent
Ms. Walker your car... Yes. ...and never got it back? WALLS: No. Explain. In my heart, you know,
I'm a big ol' softie. You know, in my heart,
I was like... "I'm gonna give Dominique...
I'm gonna give Ms. Walker
this car." You're going to give her
this car, or you're going to
let her use it? WALLS: I'm gonna
let her use it. He gave me the car,
Your Honor. WALLS: I told her... Tell the truth and
shame the devil! I gave her the car.
Yes, I gave her the car. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. But, as a stipulation,
I told her, "Whenever you get another car,
return this car back to me." I specifically
told her that. Do you remember conditions? No. He said, "You can have
this car, this is for you
to get back and forth "to the doctor's
appointments,"
and stuff like that. And, he did, he right, he did
say, "When you get another car
give me the car back." I said, "All right,
giver-taker, whatever." Then I couldn't give
the car back, because
I got in a car accident. The car was so
messed up, Your Honor,
it could not move. If he wanted the car
I could've gave him the car. But it's not driveable. JUDGE LAKE:
So now you do admit that he told you
to give it back.
It was... He was basically lending you the car. Right. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. The bottom line is,
in court you both
have testified to, admitted and confirmed
the fact that Mr. Walls
loaned you this vehicle. What kind of car
was it, Mr. Walls? It was an '02 Ford Escape. JUDGE LAKE: Let me pull up
the Blue Book value of
what this car is... We're gonna say that
it was in a lower value
running condition, that's $1,745. JUDGE LAKE: You did not give
him the car back, because
you ended up crashing the car. You still owe him the value
of the car. My judgment is
for the plaintiff, for $1,745. Moving on to the paternity. What are you
hoping for today? I'm hoping that
when it comes out
saying she's his, he step up to the plate. (SOBBING) And do what you
gotta do for your child. I just need help.
I can't take care
of her by myself. I can't. I didn't
make her by myself. Is there anything you'd
like to say to Mr. Walls
before these results are read? I just wanna say, if it comes
back and says it's yours,
I just need an apology. If it comes back and says
it's not yours, I'll give
you an apology. Earlier in court, Ms. Walker,
you said there's absolutely no
way it could be anyone else's. WALKER: No way. No. JUDGE LAKE:
So why did you say, "If it comes back and it's
not yours, I'm gonna
give you an apology"? WALKER: Because...
(STAMMERS) It got to be his. (LAUGHS) Ain't no other...
Ain't no other guy. No. No, there's not. Let's go to the results.
Jerome? These results were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics and
they read as follows. JUDGE LAKE:
In the case of<i>
Walls v. Walker,</i> when it comes to
three-year-old Adriana Walker, it has been determined
by this court, Mr. Walls... You... ...are not her father. (AUDIENCE GASPING) Ms. Walker, I gave
you an opportunity.
At least five. Well, I apologize. I'm sorry, I... JUDGE LAKE: Three years. Three years. Do you
know who her father is? Yeah. Was it the guy in the car? No. No. Why not just be honest? 'Cause I was scared. See, I'll take
honesty any day. We all make mistakes.
Huge mistakes. And the point is,
we have to figure out
how to do better, because I don't wanna
see you in here again. I want you to start
really working through
these fears you have. Is your other child's
father in their life? Yes. Okay. So you have that. And now we have to work
on doing the same for Adriana. But we gotta work
past that fear, and whatever thing is keeping
you from being honest
and truthful in your life. I wish you all
the very best of luck. Take advantage
of this counseling. All right? Yes, Your Honor Court is adjourned.
