Please be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello. This is the case
of<i> Jackson Jr.
v. Jackson.</i> Thank you, Jerome.
Good day, everyone. You're welcome. AUDIENCE: Good day. Mr. Jackson, you say
that 41 years ago, you were falsely accused
of fathering a little girl and that accusation
has ruined your life, cost you tens of thousands
of dollars, steady employment and your health. Today, you are here to
prove the defendant
is not your daughter. Is that correct? Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Jackson,
you say Mr. Jackson
is the only father you've ever known and over the last 41 years
he has treated you like
a second-class citizen. You say you have
no doubt Mr. Jackson
is your father and you intend to prove
it today. Is that correct? Yes. Yes, Your Honor. Mr. Jackson, how has
this accusation ruined
your life? Your Honor, it has definitely ruined
me financially-wise, health-wise,
mental-wise, as to the point
where, um, I can't get
driver's license,
I can't get passport. I can't...
I used to... Couldn't keep a job. It ruined my heart,
Your Honor, to where
I have a pacemaker in me now. Uh... JUDGE LAKE: The stress of it? The stress of it
had ruined my heart. How long have you been
paying support, sir? I've been paying support
since I was maybe 30,
Your Honor. I started working for
a private contractor. For 18 years, Your Honor,
I did not know that
I owed child support, and I get a job
with a paycheck is when I find out
I owe child support. Already at that time, I'm 13,000 behind. In arrears? Yes. So, I could never
catch up, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE:
Because the penalties
kept accruing and now, you're more
than $25,000 in debt. Yes, Your Honor. At 63 years old. Yes, ma'am. Ms. Jackson? Yes. You say you have
no doubt this is your
biological father. I have no doubt
that this is my
biological father. When were you made aware
that he had these doubts? Um, I was always told by him, as
a young girl, that
he had doubts. He would basically
just try to mention, you know,
things like, you know, he didn't think that,
you know, um, he was the only man
that my mom slept with and... How old were you
when he was saying this? I was, like, nine or 10
or 11 years old. (AUDIENCE GASPING) At nine or 10 you were having
to process that information? Yes. Mr. Jackson, did you
tell her that young that you thought
her mom may have slept
with somebody else? I did tell her, I did.
I had my doubts. That her mom was young at that time,
and she was seeing
more than one person. So, wait, you say
you didn't find out
you were on child support for 18 years... Yes. ...but you did
have a relationship
with Ms. Jackson? You're speaking
of her mother or her? It wasn't the kind
of relationship
that most daughters would have with
their father. I... JUDGE LAKE: What kind
of relationship was it? I considered him as a homie. "A homie"? Yeah, as a homeboy. And because of that,
he never treated me as if I was really
his daughter. JUDGE LAKE: Wait, I need
to understand that. What do you mean,
"as a homeboy"? MS. JACKSON:<i> Well, because
I was never really embraced</i> <i> by Mr. Jackson
as his daughter.</i> I was always feeling like
I was just someone there, um,
who he had a relationship with my mom.
That I was
just there. What was the nature
of the relationship
with Ms. Jackson's mother? At the time, I was married. Okay. And I knew
it was wrong
but I did it. So, what happened
when she told you
she was pregnant? I told her it was
not my child,
Your Honor. Did you say that because
you didn't believe
that was your child or did you say that
because you knew
you were married and you knew
you were wrong? At that time I
believed a little
both, Your Honor. Okay, that's honest.
I wanna know. MR. JACKSON: Yes. So, did your wife
ever find out? Yes, she did,
Your Honor. And what happened
then? Did it break
up your family? For a small period
of time it did. And we got
back together. JUDGE LAKE: Did you
have visitation? Did
you see her regularly? For years I really
didn't know where
they was, Your Honor. That's not true.
He knew where
we were. My... Mr. Jackson, he chose
to live the life that
he chose to live. He knew where we were.
We wasn't very far. I stayed in contact
with his mother. I stayed in contact
with my siblings. How did you know,
as a child, that
he knew, Mr. Jackson, where you and
your mother were? Well, he's on my
birth certificate,
first and foremost. JUDGE LAKE: He is? Yes, he's on my
birth certificate. Okay. MS. JACKSON: Hmm-mmm. Do you have
that birth
certificate here? MS. JACKSON: Yes, I do. I'd like to see it. Jerome, can you
hand me that? There you go. So... Mmm. JUDGE LAKE:
Did you know you were
on the birth certificate? Did you sign it? MR. JACKSON: I never signed
nothing, Your Honor. My signature is not on there. So, this is the birth
certificate for
Quannesha Jackson. MS. JACKSON:<i> That's me.</i> JUDGE LAKE:<i> And listed
under "Father" is your name,</i> <i> Charles Jackson.</i> My name is actually
Charlie Jackson Jr.,
Your Honor. Her mother called me Charles. JUDGE LAKE: So, you think... JUDGE LAKE: But your name,
your legal name is Charlie? Charlie Jackson Jr.,
Your Honor. So, you're saying
the fact that "Charles"
is written here is indicative of the fact
that the mother gave
the name and not you? The mother gave
"Charles", Your Honor. So, what you're saying
is that you didn't sign this.
You didn't tell someone, "I want my name listed." I didn't sign anything. I did not know
the day that
she was born. And so, you're saying
when she was born,
you didn't even know? MR. JACKSON:
Not the day she was born,
I did not know. JUDGE LAKE: You never went to
doctor's appointments.
You never did any of that? I never went to none
of that, Your Honor. So, Mr. Jackson,
what other doubt
do you have? There was another,
a man at the time that I was seeing her mom.
I'm going to say this,
her mom was fast. That's the way
I'm going to put it,
Your Honor. So, you're gonna say
respectfully that
you felt like her mom was promiscuous? Yes, Your Honor. My mom told me that
he has been the only
man that she slept with. And that's how
it has been throughout
their relationship. MR. JACKSON: I am
not a bad person. I have love in my
heart for kids. I have 10 care kids
that's not even mine,
Your Honor. I have... But why he...
Why he never treated
me like a daughter, since he has
so much love
in his heart? Why was I always
treated like little
trash off the street? No! I reached
out to her at
time and time, but she go into a shell where she don't talk
to nobody, she do't
call nobody. MS. JACKSON:
What about the time
I asked Mr. Jackson, when I was nine
or 10 years old? Him and my mother
had came back together
to live together, and, um, we had
ice cream trucks
in the neighborhood. MS. JACKSON:
So, one day
I ask my... ...Mr. Jackson,
if I could have
25 cents, so that I can
buy ice cream, and he told me
he didn't have it. And I said, "Well, do
you have 10 cents, "15 cents, a nickel?" Quannesha... And he said that he
didn't have either or. But I would see him go
to the liquor store
and buy alcohol or whatever
he would, you know,
buy for himself, but he couldn't even
give me 25 cents... That part is not true
at all, Your Honor. ...to buy an ice cream. MS. JACKSON:
And that stuck
with me all my life. And he has no idea
the damage that
has caused upon my mental capacity
to deal with that, and to reason with that. Well, you're here.
Tell him today. That has caused
some tremendous pain, some serious psychological
issues in my life to the
point where I've had issues with choosing
functional men. I can't choose
functional men because I don't know
what that looks like. If I've done anything
to hurt you when
you were small, I apologize, but I wish
you had let me knew
way before now and told me. But at the same
time, Your Honor, we wasn't around
each other for years. Had... Excuse me.
Had I'd have known, it would've have
been a lot better
than this. Because you don't even
remember the moment? MR. JACKSON:
No, I don't,
Your Honor. And it has stayed
with her for
over 20 years. MR. JACKSON:
Yes, Your Honor. I just don't...
I don't remember that. So, Mr. Jackson,
you don't believe she's
your biological child, you just didn't
believe it, you never
knew for certain? MR. JACKSON:
I don't, Your Honor. And one of the things you talked about
in your court papers
is you believe there's a medical
reason why. JUDGE LAKE:
Because she did not
have a certain trait... MR. JACKSON:
A stuttering,
stuttering. Stuttering? MR. JACKSON: Yes, Your Honor. Explain that. Most of my kids,
all of them
as a matter of fact, when they get nervous,
or lying even,
they'll stutter. She doesn't have that. I want to learn
more about this. Um, the court
has called upon an expert, Molly Dale.
She's with the Chatterbox
Speech and Language Clinic. Jerome, can you please escort
Ms. Dale into the courtroom? Your Honor, I've had
issues with stuttering,
but it's not severe. It's very mild, but I just
psychologically
choose to speak, you know, in a way
to where I won't have
to stutter like that, but I've had issues
with it before. JUDGE LAKE: All right. Hello, Ms. Dale.
We are here today, of course, attempting to help
Ms. Jackson, uh, determine whether
or not Mr. Jackson,
a man she believes is her biological father,
is in fact so. And during his testimony
he has talked about
all of his children suffer from stuttering. Is stuttering an
inherited trait? Frequently, it is. And it has a strong...
There's a strong genetic
component with stuttering. About 60% of
people who stutter have family members
that stutter as well. And then she talked about,
in her testimony
just recently, having to deal
with a slight level
of stuttering. Is the severity
or lack thereof
any indicator? No. You can have someone
in a family who is severely,
profoundly a stutterer, and then you can also
have someone that
is a mild stutterer as well. JUDGE LAKE:
Now that you've
heard this testimony, does it further your
belief that this is, in fact,
your biological father or does it affect
it in any way? I feel that
he's my father based on a lot
of different
characteristics that, you know,
he and I show, like,
our eyes and our nose. JUDGE LAKE:<i> And Mr. Jackson
after hearing all of the
testimony today,</i> <i> how do you feel?</i> <i> I still don't believe</i> I am her
biological father. JUDGE LAKE:
All right. Mr. Jackson,
you've brought
a witness as well? Yes, Your Honor, I did. I'd like to hear
from that witness. Jerome, can you please
escort them into
the courtroom? Hello, sir, please state
your name for the record. All right. My name is
King David Gabriel Johnson. Mr. Johnson,
what relation are
you to Mr. Jackson? This is my stepdad. This is your stepfather? Yes. And what testimony
would you like to offer to this court today? Well, as far
as my dad,
he's cool, and I know that
growing up it was hard for him to do
what he wanted to do for us because he was...
Had no money. We still ate,
we still had clothes,
and everything, and he never neglected
none of us, none of his
real biological kids or his stepkids.
He treated us
all the same. Did he ever say, "I may
have another daughter,
I have another daughter, "and this is your sister"? Not really, no. And so, when you
saw Ms. Jackson who did you
think she was? More like a friend. So, you don't believe
your father, Mr. Jackson, would have
denied Ms. Jackson if he truly felt she was his
biological daughter? No, he wouldn't have. Because you are not, in fact,
his biological child. No, I'm not. But he raised
you as his own? Yes. Mr. Jackson, why is it that
she did not receive the
same level of acceptance as your stepchildren did? Because she
potentially could be
your biological child. Yes, Your Honor. MS. JACKSON: I feel like he
should have gotten a DNA test a long time ago. From the time that Mr. Jackson
and my mother conceived me, he has always felt that
my mother slept with
someone else and that it's a possibility
I'm someone else's child. Do you regret
not having that
DNA test, sir? Yes, I do, Your Honor. What is that in
your hand, Mr. Jackson? This is... In my
hand, Your Honor,
is a letter I wrote three... May I see that? I wrote to the... ...court to try to get help. So, you sent this
letter to the court
in your home state? Yes, Your Honor, I did. It was three years ago,
Your Honor. And the letter reads... (READING) (CONTINUES READING) So, you basically
wrote this plea to the court
in your home state? Yes, Your Honor. Because you felt like
you had no opportunity
to resolve this, and you didn't
know what to do. True, Your Honor. All right. Well, fortunately, you have submitted
to a DNA test, as ordered by
this courtroom, and I have the
results for you. Jerome, the envelope, please. Here you go. Thank you. You're welcome. These results were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics
and they read as follows. In the case
of<i> Jackson Jr. v. Jackson,</i> when it comes to 41-year-old Quannesha Jackson,
it has been determined
by this court Mr. Jackson Jr., you are her father. MR. JACKSON: I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
(SOBS) Thank you, Your Honor. You're welcome. I love you very much
and I'm very sorry. I hope from this day on,
we can be a father
and a daughter, instead of your homeboy. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I've always knew
that you were my dad, but I chose to be
a friend to you so that I can help
keep us connected
some kind of way until you were ready to
embrace me as your daughter. Thank you. Thank you, daughter. You're welcome. And I do forgive you. Thank you, daughter. You're welcome. That's why this
courtroom
is so important, and this is
what I witness
day after day. People confronting
the dysfunction. Confronting
the confusion. And deciding
today is the day
we get the truth. MS. JACKSON: Yeah. Ms. Jackson, I couldn't
get the homeboy thing. I really couldn't.
I couldn't process it. (CHUCKLES) But I get it
now so clearly that you wanted to make it
comfortable for him because you just didn't want
to disconnect from him. MS. JACKSON: Hmm-mmm. Because you knew
that was your father. That is remarkable. Yes. 'Cause I might have
cursed you out, Mr. Jackson. (CHUCKLES) I'm not gonna lie.
I might have went on
head up with you one day. 'Cause you ain't none
of my homeboy. You are my daddy. Yes, Your Honor. Yes, Your Honor. (MS. JACKSON LAUGHS) And I want ice cream. (ALL LAUGH) Okay? Yes, Your Honor. So, now, next time you
hear ice cream truck,
what you gonna do? Run to it. Right. (ALL LAUGH) Take her
and the grandkid. JUDGE LAKE: Yes. Yeah. That's what I wanna hear. Yes. Wish you the best of luck.
Court is adjourned. MR. JACKSON: Thank you.
