You may be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello. This is the case of<i>
Hall v. Richards.</i> Thank you, Jerome.
Good day, everyone. ALL: Good day. Ms. Hall, you and your
mother are furious
with the defendant because he denies
your one-month-old
son, Demani, and does nothing to support him,
is that correct? Yes, Your Honor. Mr. Richards,
you believe that Ms. Hall is claiming
you are the father because
she wants to be with you. You say Ms. Hall
was thirsty for love and she needs to go
find her child's real dad. Is that correct? Yes, Your Honor. So Ms. Hall, you say
Mr. Richards does nothing to support your son? He does nothing. He denies her son,
but basically, he has nothing
for her to be thirsty for. (AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING) Was she thirsty
for him and
got nothing? She just made a mistake
and messed with somebody
and got a baby and now we're trying
to save my grandson,
let him know that he's the dad. Mr. Richards... RICHARDS: Yes, Your Honor. You haven't done
anything for
the child at all? No, ma'am. JUDGE LAKE: Admittedly. No, ma'am. And that's because you sincerely
doubt paternity? Yes. He's not gonna
do nothing, no. What's the nature
of this relationship? Tell me, what was
going on here? The baby's just one month old
and everything
fell apart already? What is going on? A couple of years back,
he broke my heart. Then, I decide...
He hit me up and I decided
to give him
another chance. You all were boyfriend
and girlfriend
a couple of years ago or you were just dating? We were dating. And so he breaks
your heart... Yes. And you didn't
see each other
for a while? Yeah. And then somehow, he comes back into
the picture because if he's
potentially the father... He has been
messaging her,
hitting her up. Telling her "Hey,"
and it went
from there. So you reached
back out to her,
Mr. Richards? Yes, ma'am. JUDGE LAKE: You did do that? Yes. So you admit that you were
involved with her in 2013... 2013. Yes, ma'am. You broke up,
she says you
broke her heart. So why would you
then stop reaching
back out to her? To be honest, it wasn't just like
I broke her heart
in 2013, we had an issue.
It was like... It broke both of
our hearts, I guess
you could say that. So this time, felt like maybe
I was wrong for the way
I ended things the last time, so I gave her
another chance. So how did you
reach out to her? Instagram, DM. Told her, "Hey,"
she replied, and it went
from there. So how is she
thirsty if he
hit her up? The thirst is
going both ways,
ma'am. Um, I would... WEST: But he called her
thirsty, though. I would admit I was
being thirsty also. How's it going both ways if... Okay, hold on. And what... The "thirst"?
I don't understand this. What does "thirst" mean?
Does thirst mean you... What does
that mean? RICHARDS: Let me tell you.
It's the fact that I knew I wasn't gonna
have a long relationship
with her but when you feed
somebody the lies that you know
they wanna hear, that's "thirst"
to get what
you want from them. Oh! But yeah, now
it's a baby involved,
what's your thirst? And now I feel like
she's being thirsty,
trying to put the baby on me. WEST: But you got nothing. JUDGE LAKE: So... Oh, oh! Oh, I just get it. I must got something
if you want something. So thirst... Wait, wait.
So "thirst" is manipulation. Yeah. So you were
extra thirsty... A little bit. ...because you
reached out to her and with manipulating
the situation to bring her back
into the picture. Because you just
wanted to, what,
date her again? 'Cause you said to me you did
it because you thought the
last time it didn't end right. Yeah, that was probably
something I told her that
she wanted to hear, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: No,
you told me that. So don't tell me
what you think
she want to hear, tell me the truth. I mean,
that's the truth. Did you reach back
out to her because
you felt like you wanted to rekindle
the relationship because
you thought it would work, or did you reach back out
to her because you just
wanted to be involved with her for the time being? For the time being,
Your Honor. (AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING) JUDGE LAKE: Okay. Ms. Hall, were you
happy to hear from him? Kinda. What do you mean?
Explain. Like, it ended bad, but in the same token,
I did like him. So, when he hit me up,
it kinda like, "Oh, I think
I should give him
another chance. "Maybe it'll
work out this time." All right. At what point... So you all start,
obviously, having sex again. Yeah. Using protection
all the time or not? No. Not at all. (CHUCKLES) So how long did
this relationship go on? Basically, a week. JUDGE LAKE: A week? It was like a fling.
They stopped talking
and then he came to spend time
with her for her birthday
and stayed a week. Then when he left, it was,
"Oh, I don't want you no more,"
and talking crap again. So you went to stay with her
for a week, Mr. Richards and then after that,
you basically broke up
with her again? No, Your Honor.
I think I was there
for no longer than four days, and I didn't just
leave and break up
with her. When I left, I had
a reason for breaking up
with her. So... What was the reason? RICHARDS: Well,
the day I was leaving I go to the bus,
it was about 9:00,
10 o'clock. I found out
the bus didn't come to where I was going
until three o'clock
that afternoon. So, I called her,
I told her I was
coming back. She asked me
where I was, I told her
I was coming up the hill. So, as I was
walking up the hill, there is a guy
coming out the gate. So, who's the guy
coming out the gate? Where's he coming from? That's the guy that
lives in the back. It was a backhouse, too.
It's a duplex, and there's
a backhouse. So there's a guy coming
out the gate, and in
your mind, you think he's coming from her place. Not at that point
in time, no. Okay. So I go in, and her mom pulled up
to drop off some water
or some soda or something, and when she went out there,
I grabbed her phone and
went through her phone and there's text messages
from someone saying that I'm outside. So when I go outside
to get the water, I looked across the street,
it's the same dude I've seen
coming out the gate. So I'm like, "Whoa!" I didn't say anything, and I
probably spent the rest of
that day on the couch till the bus came. Bus came, I hopped
on the bus, soon as
I got on the bus, officially on the bus,
I sent the message. Like, "I've seen
the messages
in your phone, "but I've seen the guy
across the street," and... That's where it ended. I told her
to block my number. Okay, so had you all
made some type of
commitment to one another? What would give you
the right to take
her phone, look in it and then be angry
if somebody was texting her? (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) WEST: Especially if she
can't have him... It sounds like...
I mean, yeah. He was looking
for something. Well, it sounds like
you went there to play her and then you got played,
and then you done typed... Or you could say I was looking
for a reason not
to talk to her anymore. So, tell me, Ms. Hall, at what point did you
find out you were pregnant? When I was four months. JUDGE LAKE:<i> So you found out
you were pregnant.</i> Did you immediately think
it was Mr. Richard's child? I knew, but I didn't
want to tell him 'cause how we broke up
and how disrespectful
he was to me. So you just kept it
to yourself? Yeah, I didn't tell nobody until me and my mom
sat down and she asked me,
'cause the conception date... When she told me
her due date we discussed it
and I told her "Even if it's gonna be
a problem, tell him
so he can't never say "that he didn't know "and that you
never told him." And so did you
do that, did you follow
your mom's advice? HALL: Yeah, I told
him, and this is the result. JUDGE LAKE: You reached out
to him? Yeah. By phone,
by text, how? By Instagram. By Instagram. 'Cause he had me
blocked on everything. And what was
his response? It's not his. That's what
you told her,
Mr. Richards? She told me that
she was pregnant and I was like, "Okay." And, "Whose is it?"
And she said, "Yours." <i> And then I was like, "So...</i> <i> "What happened
to the other guy
I've seen?</i> <i> "What happened
to the other guy
I heard about?"</i> So what happened to this
other guy, Ms. Hall? It wasn't
no other guy. So you still maintained that
that was a guy that lived in
the backhouse behind your house and that wasn't
another guy he saw
leaving your house? Yes. And you're saying you
weren't involved with
anybody else during that time except for Mr. Richards. Yes. Sexually. Did you get a date
of conception
from the doctor? I mean, look, it only
takes one time but he was just
there for a week. So it would be easy
to calculate in terms of
a conception window whether he was
even in town then. January 11th. So Mr. Richards,
when did you
go to visit Ms. Hall? At the beginning
of January, and I was
gone by January 9th. I took pictures
the day I was leaving. When I got on the bus... WEST: But even if he says
he was gone January 9th doctors will tell you,
if you have sex it can take up to
two to three days to... For a man's sperm
and eggs to fertilize. Right, so you still
in the window. You know that, right? Yes. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. JUDGE LAKE:
You're still in the window. But what your question
then, is... Who else is in the window? Exactly. That's all
I'm here to find out. He says he saw other people
texting you in the phone. He had only been there
a week. You all had just
rekindled it. You admitted yourself,
Ms. Hall, "I wasn't sure about him,
I don't really know." Were you involved with
anybody else during
that time, sexually? No. May I say something? You know, I asked her,
like I said, when I left that day, I told her that
I'd seen the messages and I told her
I'd seen the dude. She said that
there was no other guy. She told me from her own mouth,
that the guy was a guy that "liked" her,
and he only brings her things and her kids things.
They don't do
anything else. You testified earlier
that this was some random man that lived in the house
behind your house and he was just leaving
out of his house
through the gate. So do we know him,
or we don't know him? Is he giving you gifts or is he not
giving you gifts? What is...
What is this? So it's not a man
that lived in the house. It was a man
that was pursuing you. Yeah, but he
wasn't there that day. Oh, you're saying the man
he saw at the gate is not the man
that was pursuing you? Like, the day
after my birthday, the man, like,
before he ever
came around, the man, like, he used
to text me, like, he used to bring
stuff for my kids. And that was it.
He told me he wanted
to show me how a man's supposed
to treat a woman, but, never touched me,
never nothing. So you're saying you were never
intimate with him, though. Never. So the messages that
he saw, that Mr. Richards
saw in your phone were from that man? Yeah. But the man that was leaving
out the gate is not that man,
or was it that man? It wasn't. So Mr. Richards, did you...
Is it your testimony that Ms. Hall told you
that the man leaving
out of the gate is the man that was
bringing her the gifts? Or it was the one
on the phone? She told me that
the man that
I've seen standing outside,
when I went out
there to get the water that said he was
outside in her phone, she said that man
was the man... Because he sent the text,
"I'm outside." That's the man
that brings gifts. Was he outside, Ms. Hall? Was that him?
Was he outside
at that time? No. How do I know
about this man? So how did...
Yeah. Right.
I don't... He was there
a couple of days. So how does he know
it was on that exact day? He was so mad,
and he left and
all this and that. Oh, you're saying
he doesn't even know
if that text, "I'm outside," came through
on that particular day or if he was reading
a previous text from another day
when he was outside because he was
bringing you things? Yeah. Exactly. So, Mr. Richards,
were you sure of the date? Ma'am, that's the reason
I grabbed the phone. 'Cause it went off,
and it was that message
saying, "I'm outside." JUDGE LAKE: Got you. But he told you he was
looking for a reason
to break up with her and not deal with her,
but now it's, "I grabbed the phone
because it went off." I wasn't looking
for a reason. That was a reason
that I gave her. That's what he just told you. RICHARDS: That was
the reason I gave her. I already had it in my head
I was done with her. That was the reason
that she gave me
that I put out there. So when she asked me
why am I done, that was
the reason I gave her. And it was
a hell of a good one. What I'm trying
to understand is, how we got to the point where there's so much doubt
surrounding her pregnancy when you,
admittedly, Mr. Richards,
went to visit her, slept with her, unprotected, for almost an entire week and left two days before
the prescribed conception date, which we know
makes you fall
in that window. What else? Other than me seeing
that guy in the messages, there was just my relative,
heard from one of her relatives that she was living with
the man the whole time
she was pregnant. I never lived
with nobody. With another man. Well, not lived
with him, he lived
with her, whatever. He's saying hearsay
'cause he don't even
know that to be true. He's just bringing up
something like he did
with the brother. Just to say something. That's just
through the grapevine. Are you just talking
in circles, Mr. Richards? Because you went and... At the end of
the day, ma'am,
I'm saying that until I know for sure
that it is mine I can't do nothing
for the baby. Period. That's your position? And so, you recognize,
Ms. Hall, that he has doubt. Right? Yeah. And quite frankly,
you all were not in
enough of a relationship. You didn't even have
enough of an association for him to be positive. Because coming to visit
somebody for four days... Yes, it makes him a possibility but I do understand
why he would have doubt until he is sure. But you say you are sure. HALL: Yeah. Without a doubt that he is your child's
biological father. Yes. (JUDGE LAKE SIGHS) It's only one way to get down
to the bottom of this, Jerome. RICHARDS: Let's get it. WEST: Yes, thank you. It's time to get
the results. (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) These results were
prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of<i>
Hall v. Richards,</i> when it comes to
one-month-old Demani Hall... JUDGE LAKE: It has been
determined by this court, Mr. Richards, you... Are the father. (AUDIENCE CHEERING) WEST AND HALL: Thank you. WEST: Thank you! (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) JUDGE LAKE: You are the father. Thank you. That's your
beautiful little boy. AUDIENCE: Aw! JUDGE LAKE: How does it feel? Like being a dad
all over again.
(LAUGHS) How do you feel
in this moment, Ms. Hall? I see tears in your eyes.
What are you feeling? I'm angry, 'cause... He made me, like,
I'm just trying
to frame him when I didn't want him
to be my baby daddy. You didn't? (RICHARDS LAUGHS) She's saying, like,
after how he talked to her, she didn't want a kid with him,
but she don't have a choice after he already made. Look, I'mma cut to the chase
in this moment. You're not gonna use this baby
as a pawn... HALL: (SNIFFLES) No. ...because he ain't
gonna do right, not by you, but he might do right
by the baby. And that's what you gotta
look at right now. But now we've got to be
very careful in this moment. But Mr. Richards, you're gonna have to step up. But you're gonna
have to hold all that,
your thirstiness, all of that, your thirst, you gotta leave that
alone now, because
your child is thirsty for your attention,
your love, your protection... (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Right? And your provision. And understand that
this innocent baby
deserves your best effort. Mr. Richards,
don't play with that woman. Because you mess up her mind, you mess up your child. Now tell these men out here, you're messing around
with these mothers,
breaking their heart, taking them up and down,
around the block
and you smiling about it, talking about thirst. Thirst begets thirst. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Right? (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) All right, I wish you
all the very best of luck. Court is adjourned.
