Please be seated. Good morning, Your Honor. Good morning, Ron. This is the case of <i> Cousin v. Bell.</i> Thank you.
Good day, everyone. ALL: Good day. Ms. Cousin,
you and your mother say you had no choice but to drag the defendant,
Mr. Bell, into court today because you're fed up
with his lies. Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: He denies being the father
of your seven-month old son, Taquan, and has even gone
to the extreme by blocking all contact
with you, is that correct? BOTH: Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Mr. Bell,
you say that Ms. Cousin has told you that you are not
Taquan's father and say she's trying to use
this baby to bust up your six year
relationship, is that correct? Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: You're confident
that today's DNA results will get her out
of your life for good. Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Cousin, you say you're fed up
with his lies? SHERONICA:
I'm fed up with his lies because he
a two-timing liar. He told my daughter
that he was single. (INTERRUPTING) That he was not
in a relationship. I know he was
in a relationship with her because I seen his picture
on her phone when she start being... Who this about? ...with him.
I've seen how her attitude change. So I knew then
that she was pregnant. CORTEZ: Who did I slept with,
you or her? I met you.
I met you at a relative house. You came to a relative house
to pick her... You don't know
what your child
out here doing. SHERONICA:
...one weekend with her bad... Hold on.
Mr. Bell, hold on. SHERONICA:
And you took her with you. You had your cousin
in a car, you got out the car, you greet me, you hug me. I told you,
"Oh, nice to meet you." You said,
"Nice to meet you, too." She got in the car with you. She left with you
for that whole weekend. So, Ms. Cousin,
you're basically saying that Mr. Bell
was a two-timer. He had your daughter thinking he was in a relationship
with her, but he was really
in a relationship with somebody else? Yes, Your Honor. Is that true, Mr. Bell? No. We went out once,
but that was it. A whole weekend? No. I had to get back to her. You went out once,
a whole weekend, yes. And then not only that, y'all had lunch together
at work. I searched her room. I go in her room.
I found receipts with two combos on it. I asked her what
the combos for, she... For him and her.
You know,
at the end of the day. Oh, two combos, uh, for lunch? SHERONICA: Meal for lunch. Uh-huh, oh yeah. Oh, so... If she's paying...
If she's paying for it, of course I'm going
to take the food, she paying for it. Yeah, and y'all in a relationship. What you mean? So, listen, Destiny. I wanna hear from you. CORTEZ: Let her talk. So, Mr. Bell, first of all, let me...
Let me make sure you understand something. I got this under control. I'm listening
to the testimony, I'mma get to you, they are the plaintiffs, they're bringing this action,
so I wanna know why. Do you understand? Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE:
And then I'mma get to you and I wanna hear your side. Destiny, your mother asserts that Mr. Bell
made you feel like he was in
a relationship with you, but really,
he was in a relationship with somebody else? Yes, Your Honor. How did you meet him? We met at this job
that we was working at. He... When I first met him, he told me
he wasn't with no one. I never slept
with no one else at work. Every time
I go out to get lunch, he right behind me,
"What you eating for lunch? "Can you buy me something? "Meet me downtown." Told him I cannot pay
his phone bill every time I get paid. When she should have been... Were you paying
his phone bills? Yes. Yes. While she was paying
his phone bill and paying him...
Buying him lunch, I also doing
other things for me and my husband to have
a roof over our head. We don't have no other income, but what my
husband do is work, and at the end of the day, I want Cortez to step up and take the responsibility,
and be a man, and help take care of his son. Because me and my husband have been doing it
for the last seven months. Buying milk,
strollers, walkers, baby bath,
car seat, everything, that take a toll on me. Destiny was on a good route. She graduated from John Paul, high school diploma,
I pushed that to the fullest because I was not gonna
let her give up on a education. Once she graduated, John Paul gave her a job, somewhere to work. Once she got that job, she fell into the footstep
of him, and what he did, he used her to the fullest. And today,
I'm walking in her shoes because I've been
taking care of Taquan. I've been doing
it all, not him, nobody else but me
and my husband. And it's time for him to pay me back. And he needs to be
in his son life... So, Mr. Bell... SHERONICA: ...to teach him the right from wrong,
to be a young man. Mr. Bell,
I want you to take me back because I wanna
hear your side. Now, you say yeah, you ate the food
because she was buying it. You said yeah,
you slept with her. CORTEZ: Once. JUDGE LAKE: Once. DESTINY: Lie. JUDGE LAKE:
It only takes once, you know that, right? I know. And so what was the nature of the relationship in your mind? CORTEZ: We met at work. I only seen her
outside of work
maybe twice. We was never together because I had to
go home to her. I was staying with her
and my kid. Were you flirting
with her at work? Yeah. JUDGE LAKE: Yes. CORTEZ: But... Were you asking her what she's eating for lunch and buy her...
Buy you some too? CORTEZ: No. No. DESTINY: Lie. JUDGE LAKE: Well, you said
you already ate the food because she was buying it. CORTEZ: Yeah, she offered. So, Mr. Bell, you said this was
a one-time thing when you had sex
with Destiny? In a car. Oh, okay.
So, you had sex in a car? Did you use protection? Yes. No, lie. Yes. No, lie. Ms. Cousin
and her mom, they're claiming
this was going on. This was an ongoing
relationship, that's not true? No. SHERONICA: Yes, it is true,
Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Destiny,
I see the tears in your eyes. What are you
feeling right now? Because he lied.
No, he lied. Why would you lie on me
for no reason? SHERONICA: Because he
felt your weakness. That's what he felt. He felt that
he can take control of you because he knew that you was the one that was not
gonna say nothing, was gonna be silent. But as of today,
God is my witness. I'm speaking
and I'm speaking out loud. So, Mr. Bell,
are you denying the baby is yours? Yes. Yes. Because you have
the girlfriend of six years or because you truly
believe this isn't your biological child? I believe it's not mine. JUDGE LAKE: Why?
Why do you doubt? CORTEZ: For one,
when she got pregnant, I find out she was pregnant
through her manager at her job. He called me
into the office and told me
she was pregnant. And I told her
the same thing I'm telling her. It's not mine. Why you lying? JUDGE LAKE: Destiny, how did it go? When I came home,
I called him. I said, "I'm pregnant." He said,
"Oh well, call me back. "Let me know
what you gonna do." And that was it
and he hung up the phone. Did you tell
your manager at work? I told my manager
because that's the day that my back was hurting. She said you can go... And she told me
the baby wasn't mine. I don't want a baby
by you anyway. JUDGE LAKE: Wait, he just said
that you told him the baby wasn't his. He's a compulsive liar.
All he do is lie. No, you and your
mama compulsive liars. JUDGE LAKE:
But Mr. Bell, you said that she didn't tell you,
she told the manager, and the manager told you. Yes.
And once I went to her and told her that,
uh, it's not mine, then first thing,
"I don't want no baby "by you anyway." JUDGE LAKE: Wait. "I don't want a baby
by you anyway" is different from
"The baby is not yours." Which did she say? Both. Why you lie? Why you're gonna do that,
but lie. SHERONICA: It's just lie. CORTEZ: So I can go on with my life and you go
find your baby daddy, man. DESTINY: Okay. SHERONICA: Well, we just want to be over with it,
Your Honor, because we really want him to help take
care of this baby. You know, Destiny
just got a new job now, and I want her
to stay positive. I want her
to go to college, that's the one thing
that I want her to do. (INTERRUPTING) Well, you can say
whatever you want to say
at the end of the day. How do you know
what she was doing... All right.
Let's get some order. Let's get some order. Mr. Bell,
after you find out that she's pregnant,
do you participate in the process of... No. JUDGE LAKE: Not at all? She with a whole... She with a whole 'nother dude
during her pregnancy. No, I was not. CORTEZ: If you under 25, going to be
with somebody else, a pregnant woman. DESTINY: No, you was not, you a compostal liar. I wasn't with nobody. What is compostal? I wasn't with nobody. Thank you, baby. She didn't touch nobody until after
this baby was born. Uh, Mr. Bell,
how do you know
she was with someone else? Because he had his baby
mama searching on me. No, you searched
my baby. I didn't search nobody. I ain't got
to search nobody. All right.
I wanna hear
from your witness. Step over to the podium,
ma'am. Oh, no. Ms. King, thank you
for joining us today. Thank you. So you are Mr. Bell's
girlfriend? CHRISTINA: Yeah. Okay, so now, how did you find out that your boyfriend
was having a relationship with somebody else? I was pregnant
with our second daughter and I guess you could
say a mutual friend happened to recognize Cortez on her page, like, for his
pictures and stuff like that, and he asked if Cortez
and I were still together. And I was just,
like, you know,
"Of course." So, he gave me her name
and whatever. I searched her on Instagram. Of course, I'm gonna search. I see Cortez
is her profile picture and I see her bio. She's, like, "Oh, I love him. "That's the one for me."
And stuff like that. So, I requested her.
I saw the page, but I didn't really think
nothing of it. It looked real immature to me because they didn't have
physical pictures together. It... I wouldn't believe that they were
in a real relationship compared to how him and I are. So, wait a minute.
Did you know who she was when she made the request
on your page? No, I didn't even
know who she was. JUDGE LAKE: You didn't?
And so, how did you find out, Ms. King, your boyfriend
had, in fact, slept with Ms. Cousin? She messaged me
on Facebook, and she was like,
"Do you have
Cortez's mom number? "Because I have his baby
over here." At that point,
I show his mom. His mom was, like,
"Well, who is that?" I found out
she was pregnant through the same person
who told me that... Who told you
that they were together? Yeah.
And when I asked Cortez, I said, "You know,
she's pregnant. "Do you have anything
to do with this?" He told me, "No." Do you believe he just slept
with her one time in the back of a car? Part of me, yes, you know, because
he's always with me. Ms. Cousin, I want you
to tell the court the nature of
your relationship. We slept together
three times, unprotected,
and he know that. JUDGE LAKE:
Where'd you all go? We'll go anywhere. CORTEZ: Where we went? Where did we go? In the car, it don't matter. We went... Where did we go? And we went to the club
with your cousin, and you know that. So, what you're saying is you all would go out or have sex,
but he'd always leave? Yes. JUDGE LAKE:
But you didn't think he was in a relationship? No, he told me he
wasn't in a relationship when I first met him. You say Mr. Bell hasn't done
anything for Taquan, but has he
ever seen Taquan? Seen my baby one time, and when he came over there,
he asked for sex. And was talking about
his baby momma. Where you stay at? Exactly. You know we stay
on (INDISTINCT) Drive. I let you in the house. Well, they'd be
in a different... They'd be in a different
house then. Where y'all staying in,
uh, a room house? Tell me what happened. He came in... When he came... Hold on, hold on. Let's... Hold on. Mr. Bell, I'm getting tired
of your side talking because let me tell you
what it looks like. Every time
they go to testify, you talking over them and the only thing
it looks like to me is that you don't want me
to hear what they saying because they
telling the truth. I'm about tired of this
little attitude you got because you
got a nice girl. But you over there sniffing up with this little girl at work, letting her buy you food
and pay your phone bills. Now, you here
in this courtroom. Don't be mad at nobody
but yourself, baby. SHERONICA: Oh, yeah. Nobody. Nobody. So, all this
hemming and hawing, and rolling your eyes, it don't do nothing for me. You need to be mad
at yourself, boo-boo. SHERONICA: Mmm-hmm. JUDGE LAKE: Because
if you think I believe you slept with this girl
one time in a car, ain't nobody crazy
up in here but you if you think I believe you. Now, Destiny. Yes, Your Honor. You said he came
to see the baby one time. DESTINY: Yes... But when he came
to see the baby, he wanted to have sex? Yes, he asked me. He said,
"Would you have sex with me?" I was like, "No." He smiled, "What you scared
of, your boyfriend?" I said, "I ain't scared
of my boyfriend. "My boyfriend ain't got
nothing to do with it." And when he came,
he had a flat tire. He asked to use my sister,
uh, (INDISTINCT) to take the tire off. SHERONICA: Mmm-hmm. So my dad was
trying to help him, and when he came in
to see Taquan, he said,
"Oh, Taquan look like
you and your mama." And I was like,
"Well, he look like you "with them crazy eyes." I told him I need help
with this child because Destiny
don't have no money, but he did not do that. He blocked calls
and everything. JUDGE LAKE: So, Mr. Bell, do you remember
going to see Taquan? No. JUDGE LAKE: So, you saying you've never even
been over there. This whole thing that they're
describing didn't happen? He came over there,
he was in my home. Mr. Bell,
does this look familiar? This picture? No. DESTINY:
Why you telling a lie?
You is a liar. CORTEZ: <i> I don't care</i> <i>
about your crying.</i> SHERONICA:<i>
We're gonna get the truth.</i> The truth shall set you free. JUDGE LAKE: So, you...
Destiny, you're upset now because you're just saying
he's just lying? DESTINY: He just lie. SHERONICA: Yeah. Why would you just lie? You saying he came
over to see the baby? Yes, when my baby
was one month old. SHERONICA:
I was right there in
the room with him, Your Honor. My husband really wanted
to go off on him. Why he didn't then? But I told him, "Don't do it." He could've. You know what I'm saying? How could he
if you weren't there,
Mr. Bell? Exactly. You was there. Exactly. (APPLAUSE) So, Ms. King,
you're very quiet. Has Mr. Bell ever said
he came over to see Taquan? No. Never told you that? No. She told me
that he came over there, that's when she messaged me
on Facebook. And when I asked him,
he told me no. And then when I hear that...
Something about a truck. He doesn't have a truck, so... If he stays with me... SHERONICA: Whatever he had. I know exactly
what he had. It was a Impala. Yes. If it was a truck...
She said a truck. She didn't know. How many Impala trucks
do you know? Well, does he have
an Impala, Ms. King? My father has one. SHERONICA: So, he driving
your daddy car to our house. Ain't that so, sweetie? I'm gonna stop
this nonsense. Ron, I'm ready
for the envelope. All right. Yes. (APPLAUSE) the truth shall set you free. JUDGE LAKE: In the case
of <i> Cousin v. Bell,</i> when it comes to
seven-month-old Taquan Cousin, it has been determined
by this court, Mr. Bell, you are the father. SHERONICA:
Thank you, Lord Jesus. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Who's Sally now? CORTEZ: I will take my... I'll take my child support
papers in the mail. JUDGE LAKE: You've been
chirping off all day. SHERONICA: All day. You could not let them
get a sentence out without downplaying
everything they said. Everything. You got two innocent women
standing here. Both of them crying. SHERONICA: Say it in heart. And you got your hands
behind your back and your body language
is saying you could care less. CORTEZ: About her. This about the baby. JUDGE LAKE: Yeah,
I'm wondering about
Taquan right now. Did you see the baby
when he was one month old? No. JUDGE LAKE: Did you have sex with Ms. Cousin
more than one time? No. So, you still lying? CORTEZ:
It only takes one time. You under oath
and you still lying. Your girlfriend crying
and you lying. And she knows it. Is there something
you'd like to say, Ms. King? I apologize on my behalf
because I wasn't there. And I could probably
feel your pain because it
could've been me. Like, we got
two kids together. But see,
how you guys see him, I see it different because with my two kids, he's there. But I do apologize. And we accept
your apology, baby. The truth
has been revealed, but where do we go
from here? You all are gonna
have to figure out
how to co-parent. You are all a part
of this child's village, and I appreciate, Ms. King, you looking across the aisle
at Destiny and making that apology, because that's really
the first step. Yes. JUDGE LAKE:
It's just being able to say where you were wrong
in a situation. And, Mr. Bell,
I hope this is
a lesson to you. It seems like you
have a nice girlfriend and a beautiful family. But now, you made your bed. You got to lie in it. But like I say,
in this courtroom, you got to do more than
lie in the bed. You got to stand up
for the child. He's counting on you. I wish you all
the very best of luck. Court is adjourned.
