Please be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello. This is the case of<i>
Mellerson v. Williams,
Merritt.</i> Thank you, Jerome. You're welcome. Good day, everyone. MELLERSON: Good day. Ms. Mellerson,
you've entered the court with a wounded heart, because there are two
different men who may have fathered
your 11-month-old
daughter, Chelsea. Now, Mr. Williams,
you claim
the plaintiff initially told you
that you were
not the father yet now she
claims you are. Yes, Your Honor. And, Mr. Merritt,
you say it's your deepest
hope today that the test proves
you are Chelsea's
biological father. Yes, ma'am. So, Ms. Mellerson,
you're in
a relationship with Mr. Merritt. MELLERSON: Mmm-hmm. And you then begin to
cheat on Mr. Merritt with Mr. Williams. Right. So tell me a little
bit about how you all met. Um, I had met
Mr. Williams in 2012. Um, and from there,
it just began with
our relationship. Your Honor, it was
never a relationship. It was a
sexual relationship. WILLIAMS: We had sex
twice, and we never... MELLERSON: He is lying,
because number one,
Your Honor, this man right here,
I don't know what he's
trying to cover up... WILLIAMS: For it to
be a relationship... If we was in a relationship, ask her how many times,
have we ever left my house? It doesn't matter how many
times we left your house. We only had sex twice,
and both times she
came to the house. Bottom line is you do
admit you had sex with her. It was a sexual relationship. WILLIAMS: Yes. Yes, ma'am. And that's pretty much
all it takes to create a baby. Yes, ma'am. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING) So that's why you're
a potential father of Chelsea. First of all,
I am 22 years old. Stacey is 38 years old. I don't know what he's
trying to cover up. But, baby, trust
and believe me,
you was sleeping with me and her at the same time so don't even go there. There was no way, Your Honor. Can I please say something? Your Honor, Your Honor. I let you say what
you had to say. So let me speak up
when I want to speak. There is no way I could
have been sleeping
with both of them, because she just moved up
here from Florida. Your Honor, this lady was
here when I was pregnant. That is a lie. But the point is,
he admits sleeping with you. But it was more than twice. JUDGE LAKE:
It only takes once, though! JUDGE LAKE: So we have proved
why he's here. My point exactly! And my point exactly. All right, so,
let's move forward a
little bit to the pregnancy. MELLERSON: Mmm-hmm. JUDGE LAKE: You find out
you're pregnant. JUDGE LAKE: Who do you tell? The first person I told was
Mr. Williams. When I called him
on the phone, I told him that it was a
possibility of my ex
being my child's father. I told her,
if it's a possibility, okay, we need to get a test
and everything.
She said okay. What I let you know
when I have my doctor's
appointments. After she mentioned
that to me, she didn't even
have the same number. I never knew where
she lived at. I continuously change
my number. She never called me, either. When she called me... Did you change your
number after you told him
you were pregnant? MELLERSON: I constantly
change my... I just changed
my number again. I change my number at least
every six months. Your Honor, the next
time I heard from her... So the point is what
he's saying is true. You may have
changed your number. I may have changed my
number, but he don't remember me
going to his house. I had gave him papers showing him I was pregnant. When I went to his
house, he has this stupid look on his face
like, "Wait a minute. "Is she really pregnant?" MELLERSON: Even then,
you know, I'm like... You know
if you slept with me, just take it as a... There is
a possibility of you
being my child's father. Your Honor, even after... And so, Mr. Williams, what
do you have to add? Even after she contacted me, to let me know she was
pregnant, and I told you
that she told me that when she'll go to the doctor
she'll let me know and if I want to come to the
doctor's appointments,
that's fine. But like I said, she never...
She changed her number. And you denied that. She changed her number.
She never contacted me. You denied that. The next time I
heard from her... Did you try to contact her? MELLERSON: No. Not one time. I tried to call her.
She had a different number! She don't have the
same number. MELLERSON: You're lying. The next time
I heard from her... You never tried to contact me. ...that's when she sent me
the text message. Go ahead and lie. It said... It said, "I'm glad
you not the father." Go ahead and lie. And I sure did. "You would've been a deadbeat "anyway." JUDGE LAKE: Hold on. You tell the man you
could be pregnant. MELLERSON: Mmm-hmm. Then you say there's a great
possibility that I could have
changed my number. Right, there could have been. JUDGE LAKE: And he says he tried to reach out
to you, but you
say he did not. When you had
the baby, you send him a text again
with a picture <i> but you said,
"I'm glad you're
not the father"?</i> What happened... No,
he's not telling it... He's not telling it
all the way true. My child favors
Mr. Merritt. She do. So I,
at that moment, I had thought that
Chelsea was
his child. You thought that
Chelsea was Mr.
Merritt's child. Right, and that's when
I had text him. WILLIAMS: See, I never knew. I never knew nothing
about him. They were
in a relationship. I never knew that. JUDGE LAKE: All right,
so let me... Now that we're talking about
your relationship with
Mr. Merritt and how you felt, you felt like
Chelsea resembled him.
Mr. Merritt, you were her
boyfriend at the time. Yes, ma'am. JUDGE LAKE: When she found out she
was pregnant, did
she tell you? Probably like, five,
six months later. Then, you know, just
popped up at my door and said,
"Oh, uh, I'm pregnant, "so you might be the father." So five or six months pregnant
she showed up at the door? Yes, ma'am. She hadn't called you to tell
you she was pregnant? All that time? No, ma'am. She said she... She said she erased my number. And whatever, so... Here we go with this
phone again. No, I did not have his
number at the time. But wasn't he your boyfriend? Right, but we had broke up
in September 2012 during the month
that I had conceived. We stopped talking.
That was it for us.
We was done. I lost my license in,
like, October-ish. I got my license back in
April of 2012. And that's when I came to him
and told him. So as soon as you got your
transportation together,
you went... MELLERSON: I told him there
was a possibility. And that's
why I'm saying, these are grown men acting
like there is no possibility to be a father to my child. If you slept with
me unprotectedly, guess what? There is a possibility of
being my child's father. So get it right. WILLIAMS: Your Honor.
Your Honor. Not only she sent me the
text message, but a couple months later
she sent my girlfriend, her and my girlfriend was
contacted... You're lying. My girlfriend contacted and
reached out to her. MELLERSON: You're lying. And she actually was going back and forth... Go ahead and get your lie
right, baby son. And the thing about it... Get your lie right. And not only
she sent a message... JUDGE LAKE: Let him speak. 'Cause you know what,
it's not time for you
to be adding in any other verbiage
that's not needed. There's so many men going on
and who slept with who, I'm just trying to keep up. (MELLERSON SPEAKING
OVER JUDGE LAKE) I'm trying to slow down so you
can keep up with me... I'm just trying to slow
it down a little bit. No, no, no, no. You need to slow
yourself down. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING) That's what you need to do. You don't need to slow down
for me, baby, you need to
slow down for you and your child. MELLERSON: And I did. That's what you need to do. And I did. And that's why I'm sitting
here is to help you
resolve that mystery. So while I'm trying
to figure out why is this man in doubt, and you're chirping off on the
side so I can't hear him, if this turns out to be your
daughter's father I at least want to understand
where is he coming from. So that in the end I can help
figure out how to encourage and inspire and
motivate you all to be better for this
young child. So that she's not
standing where you're
standing right now one day with her opening
statement being, "Well, I ain't never
had a father." It don't have to happen again.
But you got to be quiet. Mr. Merritt. Yes, ma'am. You are actually hoping that
this beautiful child is yours. Yes, ma'am. And why is that?
Explain that to the court. Because, you know,
I feel like the baby
look like me. I really didn't have my
father in my life like
I wanted him to. Like he was supposed to be. So, I felt like every
child deserves to have a father and a mother
in his life. So I just want to be there
for her regardless even if she is mine or not. And you feel that when
you look at this baby, this beautiful baby,
that she looks like <i> baby pictures of you.</i> Yes, ma'am. She's got the
cheeks and everything. AUDIENCE: Aw! She's got the look. So, Ms. Mellerson, when
you look at the picture, do you see
a resemblance? I do. When Tyrone had
his hair, him and the baby had
the same hair, the same hairline.
And they have
a big forehead. (SCATTERED LAUGHTER) JUDGE LAKE: Well,
you know what,
I have to say this. There are many days
I sit in this very seat and I watch men wait for the chance to
avoid responsibility. But there are those
wonderful times, and, you know, this is
one of them, where I
see a young man that's willing to
step up and take
responsibility and really, really wants
to be the father,
and that's a great thing. And I want to commend
you for that. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING) Thank you. JUDGE LAKE: Mr. Williams. You brought
a witness today. Yes. I would like to hear from her.
Ma'am, please step up and state your name. Cecily Baldwin. And your relationship
to the defendant,
just to be clear, you're his girlfriend. Girlfriend. Yes, ma'am. I'm just trying to keep up. Ms. Baldwin, please state to
the court what it is you know
about this situation. Well, Your Honor,
there was a mutual friend between
Antoinette and I. And he came to me, because he
saw Stacey and I together and he felt like he
should have brought
it to my attention that there may, that
he may have had a child. And I got her Facebook name,
and I friend requested her. JUDGE LAKE: So you
reached out to her. I have the messages here. I have all the
Facebook messages. Let me see them. Jerome. And so was she receptive to you reaching out? BALDWIN: Her first message
was "Do I know you?" And from that point I
let her know you and I may know the same
person, Stacey Williams, it was brought to my attention
that you two may have
a baby together. And I don't condone
an absent parent. And if that's the case,
we can get it
figured out, if you need help I don't mind
helping you. This is
everything I said to her. But she made the
statement that she had a DNA test done and
her baby was light-skinned
like the daddy. So she told you
that she had a DNA test done already. BALDWIN: That's right. And I'm looking
through your evidence,
I see a message here. It says, "I got a DNA
test cause my "child is light-skinned like
her dad. If you see her pic... "But Stacey was running,
saying he wasn't her dad, "and he didn't want
to take responsibility
of possibly "having another child.
I don't know how long
you've been with him, "but I know he was talking to
me while talking to other
women, but I don't know." So in this,
this message from Ms. Mellerson
is confirming that she did tell you
she got a DNA test. But had you really had
a DNA test? We was in the process
of doing that. (AUDIENCE GASPING) But Tyrone, but Mr. Merritt... But Mr. Merritt had went away for eight months and I
wasn't able to do that. But my thing is, this,
that right there, that they're talking about,
that's not important to me.
What's important to me is trying to find out who the
father of my child is so my child can
be taken care of. JUDGE LAKE:
I absolutely agree. Very correct. What it goes to,
and this is what I want you
to understand, I don't know Ms. Baldwin,
but as she stands her
in court and presented this, I just don't see her
presented with ill will. I think she presented
it because they'd just believed that
you'd had a DNA test and had established who the
father of the child was, which further fueled
his feeling that, "Well, I'm not the father!" MELLERSON: Right. That's what she presented
this evidence for. Right. So what I am trying to explain
to you all today is,
if you see how much communication,
and lack thereof, right, can get you
in these situations? It ain't time to be talking
about no baby on
no Facebook. MELLERSON: Right. You have to call me, we might
have to have some tea. MELLERSON: Right. Because we might have to
get face to face and figure out
what's going on.
You see what I'm saying? I mean, see, so we all
understand where we at. So that we're not
standing here in <i> Paternity Court</i> years
later and we've got a child that needs to
know who her father is. Your Honor,
can I say something? Ms. Mellerson,
what I do appreciate and I'm going to
say this to you, because even though I'll tell
you when you're wrong, I'm also going to tell you
when you're right. You're trying to break a cycle
and that's a great thing. Because this can't
keep happening. Right. At some point, a mother has got to stand up and take that stuff for her
child, whatever it is. The shame, the embarrassment,
the "I gotta lay
it on the line." You also dealt with paternity
issues in your own life. Right. And I know you don't want
that for your child. And I'm happy that you're
strong enough to do that
for your baby. <i> That's the right thing.</i> And I'm ready for the results. Now before
I read these, I have to ask you,
Ms. Mellerson. MELLERSON: Mmm-hmm? What are your
hopes today? To be honest with you,
I wish Tyrone was
her father. Because I don't want
to deal with this. JUDGE LAKE: Mmm-hmm. MELLERSON: I don't. And it would not be
healthy for my child. Because this
all it's gonna be. Day in, day out. My thing is,
everybody that knows me,
I got two children of my own. And everybody that
knows me knows that
my kids come first. And so what are you
hoping for today? I mean, if that test
come back positive
that I am the father, then I'm going to
step up like I do
with my other kids. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING) And how about you,
Mr. Merritt? If she mine, I'm going
to be there, but, you know, if she not, we could try to work
something out and and see where we're going
to go from there. All right, well...
Let's find out the results. The results were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of <i> Mellerson v.
Williams, Merritt,</i> pertaining
to whether Mr. Williams is the biological father
of 11-month-old
Chelsea Mellerson, it has been determined
by this court that Mr. Williams, you... And that's pretty much all it
takes to create a baby. In the case of <i> Mellerson v.
Williams, Merritt,</i> pertaining
to whether Mr. Williams is the biological father
of 11-month-old
Chelsea Mellerson. It has been determined
by this court that Mr. Williams, you are not the father. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING) In the case of <i> Mellerson v.
Williams, Merritt,</i> pertaining
whether Mr. Merritt is the biological father,
it has been determined by this court,
Mr. Merritt, you are not
the father. MELLERSON: Well,
I know who it is. (AUDIENCE MURMURING) Ms. Mellerson, you could
have saved us all... MELLERSON: I'm saying,
I'm not coming up here
trying to, you know, sit here and say... Basically, what you're saying,
process of elimination. MELLERSON: I did not know! You really didn't know
and now that these two are ruled out, you know. I know 100%. I know 100%. You know what? That's the
most important thing. Now what you do
with that truth is going to really be the testimony of who you are. Because now it's time
for you to take that truth, if you can establish a
relationship with
your daughter and her father, beautiful. But now you got the ball. Right? I have delivered
you the truth. Now I want you to
figure out how to win. Okay? And I know
you have the strength to
do it for your child. Okay? All right, she's
counting on you. Mmm-hmm. And I'll be checking on you. And I'm not going to
let her down. Bam! Court is adjourned.
That's what I wanted to hear.
That's it. You know, I'm kind
of disappointed but,
you know, that's life. It was powerful.
You know, I felt like she gave me a message that
I need to take control of and do what I have
to do as a mother. She basically just kept
it real that, and she basically spoke
on what she felt like we both
needed to hear. And that was actually
something that everybody
needed to hear.
