Please be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello. This is the case of<i>
Calhoun v. Proutt.</i> Thank you, Jerome.
Good day, everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. Mr. Calhoun, you say
the defendant tried
to trick you into believing you are her daughter
Amiyah's biological father. But after uncovering evidence
that she slept with other men you are positive the DNA
will prove you are not. Is that correct? Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Proutt,
you claim
that you are positive that Mr. Calhoun
is Amiyah's father. And the only reason
he is denying her is because you put him
on child support. Is that correct? Yes, Your Honor. Mr. Calhoun, you say
Ms. Proutt is pinning
this child on you? CALHOUN: Yes, Your Honor. Why? Me and Ms. Proutt
have been friends
for a while, but when I seen that she
wanted to make
a relationship out of things, I cut her off.
And I just kind of
pushed away from her And... How did you cut her off? I stopped calling,
stopped answering her calls
and texts. Pretty much ignored
her existence. (AUDIENCE GASPING) JUDGE LAKE: Because she wanted
to get serious? Because she wanted
to get serious,
yes, ma'am. So, you wanted to get serious
with him, Ms. Proutt? Yes, Your Honor. I did.
But he didn't make me
understand that's not
what he wanted. But we continued
to have sex and I was cool with that.
We were still messin' around, I was still going
back and forth to his house and we continued
to have unprotected sex. (AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING) Oh. All right. So you
did really cut her off. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) That part. It was like situationship.
It really wasn't relationship. It was just...
That's cute. Situationship? All right,
we've heard
that one before. CALHOUN: Yes, ma'am. So, Ms. Proutt, you still continued to have sex
with him after he made it clear he didn't want to be
in a relationship. Correct, Your Honor.
I did. JUDGE LAKE: And at some point
you found out you're pregnant. Yes, ma'am. Me and
a family member of his, we went to the store.
I bought a pregnancy test, went back to his house,
took the test.
It was positive. The lines were fainted. Um, the next day I told him
and showed him the test but we were both in disbelief. CALHOUN: That's not true,
Your Honor. We were both in disbelief,
Your Honor,
that I was pregnant. He said he didn't believe me
but he wanted a DNA test. So, somewhere in there
you believed that
I was pregnant. Because you wanted a DNA test. JUDGE LAKE: So he asked
for a DNA test? PROUTT: Yes, ma'am, he did. Do you remember asking
for a DNA test? Eh, I asked for a DNA test
but not when she's saying
I did, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Well, when did you
ask for it? After I found out that
she said she was pregnant I blocked her on all
social media and everything
'cause I thought she was crazy. She called me and said that she had
some fertility medicine... PROUTT: I'm crazy? ...to get pregnant by me
and she got exactly
what she wanted out of me. (AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING) That's a bunch of bull. JUDGE LAKE:
Oh. Did you say that,
Ms. Proutt? PROUTT: No, Your Honor.
That was not what was said. I did not take any
fertility pills once I found
that I was pregnant. Let me tell you
how crazy it is. CALHOUN: Now who's got amnesia? This is the crazy part.
I did not believe
I was pregnant. I went to about four
or five different
emergency rooms and they all confirmed
I was pregnant. I was still in disbelief,
went to three clinics. They said I was pregnant.
I am still in disbelief. This is about September.
By that time I am
12 to 14 weeks, and I conceived between
July 21st and July 25th. Mind you, me and Mr. Calhoun had sex July 24th, twice,
unprotected. CALHOUN: Excuse me, Your Honor.
It took a... And that's the calendar you submitted to the court. PROUTT: Yes, ma'am. Let's talk about that. CALHOUN: Mmm. JUDGE LAKE: So... The red indicates the day you were intimate
with Mr. Calhoun twice... PROUTT: Unprotected. JUDGE LAKE:
Unprotected, and the yellow indicates the window
of conception.
So as you can see the day you said you had sex
with Mr. Calhoun falls directly in the window
of conception. Yes, Your Honor. And that's why you believe
he is the father of your child. Yes, Your Honor. When you look at that window
of conception, Mr. Calhoun,
do you have any, um, issue with the dates? CALHOUN: Yes, ma'am.
Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: You don't believe
you were intimate on the... Oh, there's no issue
with the dates but I'm sayin' I feel I...I have reason
to believe that she was intimate
with other dudes besides me
during those days. Really? JUDGE LAKE: How do you
have reason to believe that? I have reason to believe that after a conversation that
me and Ms. Proutt had
on the phone, she told me that she was having sex
with a dude all the way up
until the day of July 24th. AUDIENCE: Oh. JUDGE LAKE: Oh. (PROUTT CHUCKLES) Are you smiling
because that's true,
Ms. Proutt? That's not true, Your Honor.
What's true is I was having sex with someone
but this was way before these two weeks.
It was two weeks prior. I had stopped messing
with somebody else because I knew I was going
to run into him at the parties. JUDGE LAKE: So... At the end of the day,
he's really denying my baby because he on child support.
Period. Point. That's it. CALHOUN: It has no deal
with child support, Your Honor. Back and forth.
One minute, "I am the daddy.
I am happy. "Whoop-de-woo, blam." Then the next minute, "I am not
the daddy when you get here
with them papers." That's how it goes. Your Honor, I rec... Your Honor, I received
the child support papers. I received
the child support paper three weeks
after her daughter
was born. PROUTT: Yeah. CALHOUN: All right. You're on
the birth certificate. CALHOUN: Yes, ma'am. How did you get
on the birth certificate? I got on the birth certificate
because when I... Upon getting a call from Kia, remember I never had
any contact with Kia for the whole nine months
she was pregnant. JUDGE LAKE: So you didn't have
any contact. All right. No contact. No contact. I get a call from Kia
on the day her water is broke and she's sayin'... PROUTT: No. You did not get
a call from me. "You have a daughter
being born. "Do you want to come up here
and see your daughter
being born?" Me, I came to the hospital
just to see
if she was pregnant. (PROUTT LAUGHING) I never believed that
she was pregnant. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) And she's lying there.
The baby's in the nursery. And she's doing
her paperwork.
She says, "I'm doing this paperwork.
Do you wanna... "Do you wanna
sign it for your daughter?" I said, "I don't know
if this is my daughter.
I want a DNA test." She tells me, "Oh, the hospital
doesn't provide DNA test. "We have to get our own." Which I found out
is a total lie because I asked
the nurse and she said, "Miss Prout refused
the DNA test." (AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING) JUDGE LAKE: So, wait a minute.
Wait a minute. So, how did you end up
signing the birth certificate? CALHOUN: Oh, okay, Your Honor. So we're in there by ourselves.
I told her I didn't want
to sign without a DNA test. So she basically
makes me feel like a bad guy. Like, "You know you had
unprotected sex with me. "You know
that's your daughter."
I even looked at the papers... I even looked at the papers
and see like... She didn't even have
my last name as
the daughter's last name. I had to tell her like, "If this is my daughter,
you want me to sign,
put my name on it." I put my last name
on my baby's birth certificate.
That's my baby. So I gave her my last name.
You said you wanted a DNA test, okay. Why... Why put your name
on here if you haven't
got your DNA test? 'Cause you coerced me. Made me sign the papers. PROUTT: So, yeah. And so, you felt like you were coerced, Mr. Calhoun. CALHOUN: Yes, Your Honor. But you say you signed
that birth certificate,
even having doubts. Yes. Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: At the moment you
signed it you still had doubts. Tell me what those doubts were? CALHOUN: My doubts come from... I'm walking to the store. I get to the store. I run into
two neighborhood partners
that I knew growing up and they like, "You got
a baby by Ms. Proutt?" And I'm like,
"Yeah, supposedly. "She says her little girl
is mine." And they tell me,
"That's crazy because "she said she had a baby by me
before and when I asked her..." What? "When I asked her to produce
the paperwork and produce "the birth...
The pregnancy test,
it was non-producible." That's a lie,
Your Honor. So, I felt... Non-producible? CALHOUN: Yes, ma'am, like,
she couldn't produce it. Like,
she couldn't produce it. CALHOUN: She wouldn't... JUDGE LAKE: That's a word. What's your next doubt? CALHOUN: Can I continue? Oh, please. And my second doubt,
Your Honor, is the situation with Facebook. May I elaborate? JUDGE LAKE: Please. This is barely three weeks
after she's born. And it's brung
to my attention, "Hey, there's some guy
next to your baby's picture "and there're comments
up on it. "Everybody's saying,
'Hey, this is... "'This is his baby.'" So I called Ms. Proutt
and I was like, "Ms. Proutt, "why are you telling
these people that
this is the father, "when we just talked
on the phone last night
and you told me "I am Amiyah's father,
that this dude
is nothing to her?" She tells me, she says, "You are the stupid one
that signed the papers, "I told you
that wasn't your daughter." JUDGE LAKE: Oh, really? Do you have evidence
of that conversation? CALHOUN: I have evidence,
Your Honor. Oh, you do? Yes, ma'am. Jerome, hand me
that evidence. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING) (AUDIENCE CLAPPING) Here you go. You trying this case,
ain't you, Mr. Calhoun? Yes, Your Honor. You're trying this case. I know that's right.
So you brought some evidence. From Mr. Calhoun. (JUDGE LAKE READING) From Kia, Ms. Proutt. (JUDGE LAKE READING) (AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING) I posted it, Your Honor. Yeah. JUDGE LAKE:
"You a dumb..." Blank. PROUTT: Yeah, I posted it. CALHOUN: And the only thing... JUDGE LAKE: But now,
you're standing here saying, "You're the father.
I don't know why
you're denying it." I know why he denying it. That. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING) PROUTT: Yeah, I know. Now, Ms. Proutt, you're in court. I wanna
say this. You're in court.
So let's just understand that we're here
to tell the truth. Were there any other men? No, Your Honor.
There was not. You don't believe that,
Mr. Calhoun? CALHOUN: No, Your Honor.
I do not. 'Cause the way she... All right. Well, this court
has identified a witness and they have
something to say. Jerome, will you please escort
the witness into the courtroom? JEROME: Yeah. CALHOUN: Mmm. In the stand,
right next to the Judge. Okay. (CHUCKLES) Watch your step
going up. Thank you. Thank you so much
for joining us. State your name
for the court. Demetria Dawson. Ms. Dawson, you are what
relationship to Ms. Proutt? Godsister. You're her godsister? Yes, ma'am. And you have information
as to what the relationship was between
Ms. Proutt and Mr. Calhoun? That's correct.
Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Please explain
to the court. My godsister was having
unprotected sex
with another man. (AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING) Um, also before he came
into the picture, myself and also other members felt that my godsister
was already pregnant. AUDIENCE: Oh! Because of her demeanor. DAWSON: Her mood... JUDGE LAKE: Oh.
What do you mean? DAWSON:
Her mood changed.
She was very moody. So, when he did come
into the picture they had
unprotected sex, of course. A week later she took a pregnancy test. That's not enough time to
consider him a possibility. JUDGE LAKE: Hmm. DAWSON: So, my opinion,
he is not the father. So, you were there
when this all transpired? Correct. Before she met Mr. Calhoun
and reconnected with him. DAWSON: Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Now she admits
to the court that she had been dating
another man before him but she said she stopped
sleeping with that man two, three weeks before she
ever met Mr. Calhoun.
You say that's not true? No, Your Honor.
I know it was an ongoing thing. And so, Ms. Proutt,
you look guilty. (PROUTT CHUCKLES) (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I mean, Your Honor,
I love my godsister but... But you was not...
You wasn't there.
You know, you can't just say... I mean, I respect
her opinion or whatever but she can't just say
who I was sleeping with
and what I was doing. How do you respect somebody's
opinion that's supposedly
a lie about you? I'm just saying. If that's how
she feel, I can't change
how she feel. JUDGE LAKE: How she feels
or what she knows? Yes. CALHOUN: Mmm. How she feels, just because me and the other guy
was still kicking it doesn't mean
we were still having sex. CALHOUN: That's what
we were doing. Kickin' it. No, we were having sex. All we was doing
was kicking it. (LAUGHING) JUDGE LAKE:
This is exactly why we have to be here. 'Cause you kids are here
playing games. Right? I always tell people,
sex is not like<i> Monopoly.</i> It's not better
with more people involved. CALHOUN: Mmm. Right? It just makes a bigger mess. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING) What relationship does
Mr. Calhoun have
with your daughter? He hasn't seen her
since she was two months. JUDGE LAKE: Not since she was
two months old? No, ma'am. 'Cause I felt totally
humiliated and embarrassed
by that Facebook stuff, ma'am. No, you felt
totally humiliated with the child support papers
is what it was. I really did. Because even... I wasn't worrying about
child support, Your Honor.
Even after she did the Facebook situation,
she called me a day or two
later and said, "I'm sorry.
I did that out of spite. "You know
you're Amiyah's father." I said, "No, I'm not accepting
your apology.
Tell me on Facebook. "Apologize to me on Facebook
in front of all of them people
you just told was her father. "'Cause you told the world
that the other dude
was her father." WOMAN: Mmm-mmm. JUDGE LAKE: You still have
that smirk, Ms. Proutt. Your Honor... Okay, at the end of the day,
this other man is there
for my child. So regardless
of what I'm sayin'... JUDGE LAKE: Is he now? He's there now. To this day. He's still there. JUDGE LAKE:
So, he has stepped up
and acted like a father. Exactly. To this day and I'm... But is this other man...
Is the other man
you slept with? Yes, it's him. AUDIENCE: Oh... Well, Ms. Proutt. CALHOUN: What am I
supposed to think? What is he supposed to think? But he knows that
he's not her father. I don't know that. JUDGE LAKE: Have you
taken a DNA test? No. But... Hmm. JUDGE LAKE:
So how does he know? We just... It's just...
We know that's not... JUDGE LAKE: All right. I'm tired of y'all. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I'm ready for the results. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING
AND CHEERING) These results were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics
and they read as follows. In the case of<i>
Calhoun v. Proutt...</i> When it comes
to six-month-old
Amiyah Calhoun, it has been determined
by this court, Mr. Calhoun, you... ...are the father. PROUTT: Whoo! Wow. CALHOUN: Wow. CALHOUN: Wow, that's crazy. That's a little crazy. (SOBS) Why are you
so upset, Ms. Proutt? PROUTT: Y'all don't know
what I've been through
with this man. This whole beef thing.
I can't co-parent like that. Either we're gonna co-parent
the right way or it's just not
gonna happen, and we can go to court
and figure it out like that. But I just... All right. We don't have
to co-parent. I would
like full custody of her. Oh, no. Just like that. PROUTT: You don't know
nothin' about her. At least now that
I know she's mine. What size does she wear?
What do you know about her? CALHOUN: I can learn
my whole life. That doesn't even make sense. JUDGE LAKE: Listen, listen,
listen, listen, listen. You are Amiyah's
biological father. Yeah. It's really
a hard pill to swallow,
Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE:
And why do you say that?
She's a beautiful... 'Cause I got to deal with that
for the next 18 years. AUDIENCE: Oh! PROUTT: Deal with what? I gave you chance after chance
to try to do something. Three weeks after
the baby is born, I'm already receiving
child support letters. JUDGE LAKE: But, listen.
But you set
yourself up, Mr. Calhoun. You set yourself up. WOMAN: Yes, he did. I mean, look... If we gonna really call it
the way it is,
you set yourself up. Yes, Your Honor. Any time a man has sex
with a woman, unprotected, you better understand that having a baby and being
on the hook for child support is a very real possibility. You have a responsibility
to take care of this child
financially but you also have
a legal right to see her. Yes, I know. JUDGE LAKE: And you need
to be in her life. Yes, Your Honor. I plan on being... Are we clear? PROUTT AND CALHOUN:
Yes, Your Honor. Court is adjourned. (AUDIENCE CLAPPING)
