You may be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello! This is the case of<i>
Porrovechhio v. Touchet Lutz.</i> Thank you, Jerome.
Good day, everyone! AUDIENCE: Good day! JUDGE LAKE: Mr. Porrovechhio,
you claim that the defendants, Ms. Touchet
and her daughter, Ms. Lutz, fraudulently received
$150,000 in settlement money from
the death of your father,
Ricky Porrovechhio Sr., because Ms. Lutz is
not your biological sister and her mother
covered up that fact. Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: You've petitioned
this court for a DNA test, and hope to pursue a claim
in your home state to have the money returned
to your family. Yes, Your Honor. Miss Touchet, you're here
to put an end
to a more than 30-year-old feud between your
family and the Porrovechhios, which started with rumors
and lies about
your daughter's paternity. Yes, Your Honor. Mr. Porrovechhio, how have
you, and your family been defrauded
by the defendants? My father was on a tugboat,
working and he drowned, and accidental death
is what it said on his
death certificate. MS. TOUCHET:
That's what it was! MR. PORROVECHHIO: Declared
as accidental death, drowned. So let me understand,
your father at that time
was married to? My mom. Me. JUDGE LAKE: Miss Touchet. MR. PORROVECHHIO: I feel
the settlement was awarded
to Miss Touchet. Mrs. Lutz had a maiden name,
her mother's... Touchet is
a maiden name of Theal. Uh, I have evidence right
here on the birth certificate. Jerome, let me see
the evidence. And, you submitted this birth
certificate because you said
originally she was named... MS. LUTZ: Theal. Ms. Lutz
was named Theal. And, then later on her
last name was changed
to Porrovechhio. Yes. JUDGE LAKE: So, after your
father passed away, you felt like she in some way
affected the settlement
distribution. MR. PORROVECHHIO:
Correct, Your Honor. Tell me! A week after my dad
was declared deceased, Ms. Lutz's name
changed from Theal
to Porrovechhio. My mom had to change
my name because I was born a Theal, because
she was out of wedlock. My dad and her
were poor. They didn't have
the money to be married. They were poor! MS. CORTEZ: I disagree. And, after he died, they were
already going to get
my name changed, and after he died, she
had to have it changed, so that I can get the
social security benefits
I deserve just like Ricky did and just like my
other brothers did. Why did it take so long? And, also,
Your Honor, it was with Ricky and I's
full intention on changing
my daughter's name as soon as we could come up
with the money to do so. Also, when she was born
we were going to put Ricky Porrovechhio's name
on there, and have
her last name, but we were told by the hospital that legally we
couldn't do that because
we were not married. I have four children
that's out of wedlock. MS. LUTZ: It was
a totally different time. This was in 1982. It's not the 1700s, Laurie. MS. TOUCHET: It was in '83. You do not know what
the laws and regulations
were at that time. Apparently, you don't either. MS. TOUCHET: Excuse me!
I was there, you were not! Okay. My mom and dad were separated,
right, when he died... Just living apart,
there was no legality... They were not divorced,
and my dad never said that... Okay. Mr. Porrovechhio, you
brought a couple of witnesses. I want to get
to the first witness. Miss Cortez,
am I correct? Yes, ma'am. Please stand at the podium. You are actually
Mr. Porrovechhio Sr.'s sister. Correct. JUDGE LAKE:
And, so, you are Mr. Porrovechhio,
standing here, his aunt. Yes. Yes, Your Honor. MS. LUTZ: She never
denied me either. This is the first time
I am hearing about this
a few weeks ago because I have never heard
that I was not a Porrovechhio until I got into
it on Facebook. He actually met my
mom at Mardi Gras and begged her to let us back
in her life, which she did. And, when we were at
a restaurant celebrating
my brother's birthday, after being in contact
for a year, she walks
right past us, at the restaurant on
my brother's birthday
like she didn't know us, with her parents,
do you remember that? Yes! MS. TOUCHET: Oh, Lord,
she remembers something. She said on a social media
site that she did not
remember that, and, I remember
it very clearly, she made my brother,
my deceased brother, cry. And, if she wants
to post things on social media with
my brother's pic... My deceased brother's
picture, when she
wasn't even in his life. MS. CORTEZ: That's not true. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Lutz. Why... Yes, it was. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Lutz, I need to understand from
you, specifically, why do you think your brother
is denying that you're... Because they filled his head
with all kinds of lies. You know my mother more than
anything in this world.
She kept us together, Ricky. MR. PORROVECHHIO: Well, you
know it's a family feud, okay. It's a family feud,
it was not between
me and you, Ricky. MS. TOUCHET: That was
created by y'all. MS. LUTZ: She treated you
like a son! They always
had a family feud. There were things that were
said in the family on my
side, my father's side, and also on your side. Excuse me! I never said anything bad
to you about the Porrovechhios because you were a child
and there was no place
in that for children. That was an adult situation. We stayed out of it. MS. LUTZ: She kept
us in contact
after my daddy died... JUDGE LAKE: So, Ms. Lutz. And let us
spend time together. Direct your comments
to the court. JUDGE LAKE:
I wanna understand this. Why do you think
this is happening? I have no clue. I loved Ricky with all
my heart and the fact
that he would even question me and him
being brother and sister kills me because I look
just like my daddy. If anybody looks
like my daddy,
I look just like my daddy. I have a lot of anger for the Porrovechhios,
my daddy's side of the family, because when he, my daddy,
passed away, they passed away. They basically were out
of my life for good
by their own choice. JUDGE LAKE:
So, let me understand, up until a certain part
of your life, you were
included in the family. MS. LUTZ: Up until my daddy
died. Yes, ma'am. Accepted? As a Porrovechhio? MS. LUTZ: Yes, ma'am.
Absolutely. JUDGE LAKE: Until, how old? MS. LUTZ: Until, my daddy
passed away at five. They were fine with us
being a Porrovechhio. They didn't say anything
before, but after my mom
received the money, they wanted to say,
"Oh, we're not their
grandchildren anymore! "We are not his child." MS. CORTEZ: Not true! Yes, it is! The reason, as far as them
separating, my brother and Laura, is that, my brother walked in
on her having an affair. MS. TOUCHET: Oh, my God! How would you know
something like that? Your Honor, I'd like
to explain that lie, okay! It was told by my brother.
I was 21 years old. Dawn, you just
need to stop lying
and be done with that. Your Honor, this is
exactly what happened, okay. When Ricky and I first
met, I was somewhere
around 16 years old. I mean, we just clicked
immediately. He's a handsome,
good looking, Italian man. I just couldn't help myself,
I fell in love with him. After a couple of days,
we started seeing each
other for a while. And, it was just him and I,
just us together. Things were great. I got pregnant.
I was almost 18 years old,
I got pregnant. Things started going a little
downhill from there because
he started showing signs of jealousy
and issues going on. We got past that. My daughter was born,
then next year
we got married. Then the next
year my son was born. So, we were doing okay. JUDGE LAKE:
And, you were still together. MS. TOUCHET: We were still
together. We were family. You were a family. They had a second child. We had a second child. And, at that time the
Porrovechhios were
acknowledging you? Absolutely! Absolutely! You were part
of their family. I am just trying
to understand the fraud, where does the fraud come in,
Mr. Porrovechhio? That was doubt from my father. MS. LUTZ: It was his parents
that doubted us. Let him explain this 'cause
I want to understand. There was doubt from my
father, thinking that Taureen
was actually for him. But, he did love Laurie
Touchet. He did love her. MS. TOUCHET: Yes, he did. Of course, he did.
He married her and had
two children with her. And, so, you are saying
that there was always rumors or discussion
in the family that your father doubted
whether or not Ms. Lutz
was truly his child. MS. LUTZ: The rumors came
from the Porrovechhio family and the only reason
there's any question
about any money is because they thought
they can get their
greedy little hands on it after my daddy passed. MS. CORTEZ: The only
reason you know anything
about anything... MS. LUTZ: Oh,
really? All right. MS. CORTEZ: Because... Listen, I understand
that you are upset and very passionate
about the situation, but you're all
over the place. I need to understand
the doubt. Did you hear about
anyone else she was
potentially sleeping with? No, Your Honor. The only thing I heard was,
my father walking in on Ms. Touchet. MS. TOUCHET: As far as
that, that's such a lie. With a coworker. With a coworker? kills me because I look
just like my daddy. There was a point
that you were told that your father walked in on
Ms. Touchet and another man. Right, correct, Your Honor. MS. TOUCHET: Your Honor,
that's a lie. That's not the reason
my husband and I separated. Initially, I got a job right
as I finished school. I went to work. I was
driving a really old
broken-down car. My husband was home
watching the children,
I was driving the car. The brakes went out on my car. As I'm waiting, one
of the mechanics
came out of the back, who was a friend
of my older brother,
and saw me sitting there. He went to the
auto-parts store, brought brakes for my car,
replaced them in my car. When I got home is when
I found out, my husband
was so upset that I had been
gone for so long.
As I explained... JUDGE LAKE: So, what you're
saying, Ms. Touchet, is that's the only incident
where you felt like your fidelity
was in question. He was a jealous person,
he accused me, that was the second time
he accused me. JUDGE LAKE: So, this gentleman they're talking
about, the coworker... The one you brought
to my father's funeral. (ALL ARGUING) Were you ever in a
relationship with this man? After my husband
passed away, yes, ma'am. You did bring him to your
husband's funeral. He was a friend of
the family. Yes, ma'am.
He went. So? Yes, ma'am. MS. CORTEZ: Yes, and
she was caught. MS. LUTZ: So what? So, wait a minute,
Ms. Cortez, you're saying that this is
the man she was caught with. MS. CORTEZ: Yes. And, then during your
brother's funeral
this man was there. Yes. Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: And then
later they had a relationship. MS. LUTZ: Mmm-hmm. Yes. There were several
people there. I lost contact for a while. Yeah, she lost
contact because her parents wouldn't allow her
contact with her own family. Exactly. So, I want to go to you,
Ms. Lutz. Um... Tell me a little about your
relationship with your father. You remember having
a relationship with him? There's not a lot that
I remember because
I was so young, but I do remember my dad
had this really big car, and he would let us ride
on his lap, drive us around. I was daddy's girl.
I was his only daughter. He had two sons.
And... MS. CORTEZ: He loved his kids. (ALL ARGUING) Yes, he did.
Hence his daughter. I love my daddy. And I grew up without a dad,
and that was hard enough, and then I grew up without
his memories, his childhood, I didn't have that because
they took that from me. They took that and
all of his belongings... MS. CORTEZ: Your mother
took that from you. And didn't give 'em back
to me, didn't let me have
anything from my dad. And, now they are taking
my brother from me just because they
have so much hatred
in their heart. And, you two were close! We were always close. My mother would make sure
that we stayed in contact,
take weekends with him. Like she had visitation
with him, like it
was her child. We never fought, this is the
first time we've ever had
a disagreement, and I'm 32. I didn't know,
he even thought
this kind of thing. I didn't know because
he didn't tell me. So, you never aware that
there was a question
related to your paternity? MS. LUTZ: No. Until, when? Until, about a month ago. That's the first time that
I ever heard anything that
I might not be a Porrovechhio. And, so, you're saying,
Mr. Porrovechhio, that the
family just held this in? The family held it in.
And, it's hearsay, it's
things that I have heard on my side of
my father's family. MS. LUTZ: That's not true. So, how much money did Ms. Touchet receive?
Do you remember, Ms. Touchet? Yes, ma'am. I have a copy
of the settlement check here. It was for $325,000,
but as you can see it was separated, $100,000
for each of the children, including Mr. Porrovechhio,
and $25,000 for me,
as his legal wife. JUDGE LAKE:
Jerome, let me see that. My mom always...
I never wanted
for anything. My mother bought a home. Or it was under
my name, my grandfather's the one
who took the money and
put it into my account. Oh, I didn't even
know that. That's nice. He took it in an
account and put it in there
till I was 18 of age... MS. LUTZ: And when he
turned 18, To be able to use that money he bought a Mustang... for what I needed. And he wrecked it
and almost killed
himself with it. My mother cared for me
and my younger brother
with that money. And I don't have any regret on how she decided
to spend it. MR. PORROVECHHIO: How many
houses y'all lived in? One house. One house.
She bought one house! So, Mr. Porrovechhio,
it's your intention that you want to return
to your home state, and file a claim to have
that money returned to you.
You believe... Well, if she comes out she is
not my biological sister,
I will pursue that! MS. LUTZ: Oh, wow! MR. PORROVECHHIO: This is
30 years, going on. JUDGE LAKE: Thirty years! And this is all new to me!
That's what I love. MS. LUTZ: This could have
been done with 30 years ago. So, for 30 years this family
has been in turmoil. MS. CORTEZ: There
was a reason we
always, we always... Why are you here?
You don't even want me. JUDGE LAKE: Hold on!
Hold on! Hold on! Sorry, Your Honor. For 30 years, this family
has been in turmoil. Yes, ma'am. Over rumors, and ultimately
a settlement, which is
far too common. Money! That at the end of the day
it comes down to that. It is nowhere near the cost
of what it takes to raise
two small children. I know, I am
raising four kids. I think the only way we
are going to be able
to figure out how, and if we can move forward,
is to have the results.
Jerome. MS. LUTZ: I don't want. MS. TOUCHET: You should
be sorry. I don't want a relationship
anymore. I am good! (AUDIENCE APPLAUDS) These results were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics
and they read as follows. Just so we are clear,
in order to determine if Ms. Lutz and Ricky
Porrovechhio Jr. are siblings, we performed a sibling-ship
DNA test, using Mr. Porrovechhio
Jr., and his mother,
Ms. Bruce's, DNA, as well as Ms. Lutz and her
mother, Ms. Touchet's, DNA. You understand? MS. TOUCHET: Yes, ma'am. MR. PORROVECHHIO:
Yes, Your Honor. If she comes out she's
not my biological sister,
I will pursue that. The results read as follows. In the case of<i>
Porrovechhio v. Touchet Lutz,</i> pertaining to 32-year-old
Taureen Lutz... JUDGE LAKE: It has been
determined by this court, Mr. Porrovechhio
and Ms. Lutz... Are siblings. I told you! (ALL ARGUING) You ruined our relationship
with their lies! We are done, Ricky. Congratulations! You are the one
who wanted this. I wanted it to show you. MS. TOUCHET:
You brought it up. We never had this problem
till they got into
the middle of this. JUDGE LAKE:
Let's get some order! Listen, listen. MR. PORROVECHHIO:
I just wanted to
know the truth. So, your sister's nothing.
She never was nothing. I didn't matter, right?
And you killed
our relationship. JUDGE LAKE:
Family, family, family! I was hoping the truth
would be the catalyst to more positive discourse.
That is your sister! Oh, yeah! Yes. MS. CORTEZ: Yeah,
biologically. No, no! Stay on your side. Hold on!
He came to give a hug. I can't even do this,
Ricky. Goodbye. You wanted to do this! Well, listen, he came over
to try to give a hug. If you are not ready
to receive that,
take a moment. I have dealt with
a lot of grief. And, hopefully one day... Because I'll say this,
what is the sense of fighting, yelling,
screaming, and fighting for validation, to say, "I know I am a part
of this family, I am part
of this family." And, then you find out, yes,
you are part of the family, but I don't want nothing
to do with the family. We didn't want it to
begin with, Your Honor. It was the reason
for even being here. What you stated today has
been validated by the DNA. And, what I am hoping
for you, is that you will
use that truth, and say you don't
have to harbor another
hurt feeling. Everything you stood in court
today and said was true! JUDGE LAKE: That is his child! Yes, Your Honor. But, they're
brother and sister. You all, like it or not,
you're family. And, you have to now
take that one step
at a time to figure out what good can come from
what you learned today. I wish you all
the best of luck. MS. LUTZ: Thank you. Take advantage
of the resources. Court is adjourned!
