You may be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello. This is the case of<i>
Walker v. Simmons.</i> Thank you, Jerome.
Good day everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Walker,
you claim that your
near-death experience has made your desire
to determine your
biological father more important than ever. Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: After believing
one man was your father, you learned about
another possibility,
Bruce Simmons. PARTHENIA: Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Now, you'll
meet him for the first
time in a minute, but you say you must first
prove to his doubtful wife
that he is your father. PARTHENIA: Yes, Your Honor. Well okay. Ms. Simmons,
you contend that there's
absolutely no way your husband is Ms. Walker's
biological father. No way. JUDGE LAKE: You argue
Ms. Walker needs to
let go of this fantasy and move on to
another candidate. Yes. Ms. Simmons, please,
share your doubts. DIERDRE: We've
been together
since we were 15. We just got married 2003.
I have two biological kids. We've never made any.
I believe my husband
is sterile. I believe he can't
make no kids. If we've been together
that long and we ain't
made none together, what makes somebody
just pop up and say,
"Oh, you're the father." And so the two
children you have... DIERDRE: Are not his. Are not his. No. So, you know you're
capable of having
children. Yes. JUDGE LAKE: But don't
believe he is? Yes. So, Ms. Walker, so why
do you believe he's your
biological father? Your Honor, I went
on the search, and I didn't particularly
just go out and just
pick this random guy. In the beginning, I was
also told that there was
another man that was on my
birth certificate, and I was told that
was my father. JUDGE LAKE: So what made
you exclude the man that's
on your birth certificate? I excluded him because I had,
as you know, I had a
near-death experience. I had to, I was going
for a congestive
heart failure, <i> and I had to have
a lung biopsy.</i> And in order to have
this lung biopsy,
they said that I can reach out to my family
and before they went
for donor blood, reach out to my family
and ask if they would
go and donate blood. So I called my dad
that I was told that was, and asked him to go
and asked his family
all to go down and give blood so
I wouldn't have to
have donor blood. So, after everything
was said and done, the doctors comes
into me and told me, "The guy that you were
thinking that's your father, "and this is not something
that's supposed to be
told to you, but, "there's no possible way.
We wasn't able to
use his blood. "We had to use
donor blood." And so how did you connect
to the name Bruce Simmons? Okay. My mother had to go
to Jersey where I resided
when I was a child, and his sister reached out
to my mom in the
middle of the road, stopped her,
"Hey, hey, hey, I've been
looking for my niece." And my mom
came back to Florida... That's not what
happened at all. My mom came back to Florida
and was, like, "Hey, listen,
let me tell you something. "I think I might have
a possibility of
who your dad is." So I'm like, "Okay.
Go ahead. Give'em
my number." She gave my number,
she reached out to me, she was like, "Well,
we knew about you since
you were a baby. "Your mom had you around,
and then all of a sudden,
she went off." That's not how it
happened, Your Honor.
Not at all. JUDGE LAKE: And this is
Bruce Simmons' sister... Sister, yes. DIERDRE: And this is
not how it happened. ...talking to you? PARTHENIA: Yes. All right, so... She cool. Ms. Simmons, you say
that's not how it happened. DIERDRE: No, it's not
how it happened. Were you there? No, I wasn't there. JUDGE LAKE: Well,
how did it happen? Because the sister
called him and said, "Bruce, I met so and so
and so, she asked me
for your number. <i> "She believes you
are her daughter's
father."</i> So I said, "First of all,
your sister should have
called you first, "for permission to give out
your number. You have a wife. "I believe that's
disrespectful to me." "Come ask me first,
is it okay?" Okay, now he's talking
to her on the phone, "Oh,
call this one. Call..." Why is you giving out
your family numbers to people that you
ain't even sure that's
your daughter yet? PARTHENIA: What's it
to you... It's a lot to me.
That's my husband. I'm not asking y'all
for nothing. I don't
want nothing. I just want to know
where I belong... I understand that, but... No you don't! You're building
somebody's spirit up. All right, Ms. Simmons,
with all due respect,
I have to ask you, are you upset that
she made contact,
or are you upset that your husband may be
her biological father? No, no, none of that.
None of that, because
he wants to be a father, JUDGE LAKE: Hold on,
hold on, hold on.
You say, "None of that." None of that.
I'm not upset. So what are you upset for,
because this can not be
your calm state. It's the way they
went about it. He reached out to me! What you being
sneaky for? I didn't contact him. I never heard of
her mother, never
heard of her. Okay, hold on. Hold on. So, your anger stems
from, you just felt like
in this equation, they left you out. Exactly. And I was upset
for the way the sister
went about it, like I say. So you felt like his sister
overstepped her bounds. DIERDRE: Yes, yes! All right. So, Ms. Walker,
when you first connected
with Mr. Simmons, what happened? Well, I get this message of,
"Hi, Parthenia, my name
is Bruce Simmons, "and I'm your father.
Call me back." And I was just stunned. So, I played it for my boss,
I played it for my mom, I played it for my husband
when I got home,
I played it for my kids. I called everybody, and I just
kept playing this message, because, just to have
that little bit of hope
of where you belong, it means a whole lot. JUDGE LAKE: And so,
Ms. Walker, even though you got
that message, you have
never met Mr. Simmons? Never. DIERDRE: No. JUDGE LAKE: To this day? I've seen his sister,
I've lived in the same town, you know, he's seen me,
from my understanding
of what he said, he's seen me as a baby
when I was brought
around as a baby. Him and my mother
were in a relationship,
I guess on a breakup here, as well as in a
relationship... It was never a relationship. As well as a relationship,
That's your say, I'm not
worried about what you say. No, that's what he said,
okay, from his mouth. So, Ms, Walker, did
Mr. Simmons tell you he believed that
he's your father? Yes ma'am, he did. (CHUCKLING)
He didn't. Jerome, I think it's time
we meet Mr. Simmons. DIERDRE: Yes, please
bring him in. Please. Hello. Can I give you a hug? Um, Your Honor... JUDGE LAKE: Mr. Simmons,
welcome. Thank you for
joining us here today. Yes. So we are discussing
the paternity, as it
relates to Ms. Walker. Now, she says that
you contacted her, and said you
believe you're her
biological father. Yes. JUDGE LAKE: Now,
take me back. Tell me about
the relationship
with her mother. BRUCE: Well, me and her
mother got together, I was trying
to get her sister,
her mother's sister. That's how it
really started out. And what had happened,
her mother pushed up and said,
"I'm gonna make you my man," because her sister wasn't
that into me at that time. And, you know, we was, like,
courting each other. We called
it courting, back then. And we made plans to
spend that weekend together. Okay. So we spent that
weekend together,
and then after that, we lost touch
with each other, because... Like I said,
no relationship, it's
just the weekend. She upped and left. Okay, so when you say
you spent the weekend
together, let's be clear, you were intimate with her? BRUCE: Intimate for
two days, yes. No protection used? No protection.
No nothing. But was in a relationship
before that, because he
just said that they were in... Well, Ms. Walker, yes,
we understand that it was not a one-night drunken booty call
as Ms. Simmons suggested. PARTHENIA: Thank you.
That's all I wanted. He said three days,
a weekend. They spent
the weekend together. JUDGE LAKE: Well, your husband
already testified they
courted each other. A weekend is not
a relationship. A courtship.
That's a relationship. That's not enough
relationship. JUDGE LAKE: They courted
each other. They spent
a weekend together. And then your mother left,
for whatever reason. PARTHENIA: Yes,
Your Honor. Bottom line is, when she left,
did you ever find out
or know she was pregnant? BRUCE: No, I did not. When I found out that
she was pregnant,
she had the child, it was when she come walking
around the corner and she
had a baby in the stroller. 'Cause I didn't know
until she walked up on
the porch and said, "Okay, this is your child." And she gave
me a picture, and immediately I went
upstairs and I showed
the picture to my father, and I said, "Does she
have any resemblance
to the family?" <i> And to him, he turned to me,
he said, "You better
have a test."</i> <i> This is what
my father said.</i> At that time, when I came
back downstairs,
she was having a dispute with the other lady
that I was involved
with, and she left. So, here it is now,
we come 26 years later
down the line, and... JUDGE LAKE: And she's having
another dispute with somebody
you're involved with. BRUCE: Yeah. It's interesting how
history repeats itself. When his potential daughter
was right before
his very eyes, her mother got into
a dispute with the woman
that he was with. And now his potential
daughter is right before
his very eyes again, but she's in a dispute
with the woman that he's with! Do you believe you're
sterile, as your wife... Do I believe I'm sterile?
Now, my wife says so. Now, me... (DIERDRE CHUCKLING) Me, and that's her,
I don't know about it,
practically nothing. I've learned from a
doctor, he said that my
sperm system was weak. It didn't say that
I was sterile, you know
what I'm saying, so... For her to say
that I was sterile, it wasn't God's intention
for her to have any
children by me, and I leave it
at that point. And it was God's intention
that her mother probably
had a kid by me. All right, so, Ms. Walker,
What are the other reasons,
outline for the court, what are the other reasons
you believe he's your father? I have a lot of medical issues
as well as my children
have the medical issues. All six of my children,
including myself,
has asthma. My mama don't have asthma,
my grandma don't have asthma, my granddaddy don't have
asthma, but I found out... Mr. Simmons,
do you have asthma? I have asthma. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. And it runs in my family,
'cause my mother's got it. Can I say something?
He has asthma. I have asthma,
Does that make him my father? My son has juvenile diabetes.
On the men's side of
their family, runs diabetes. BRUCE: Diabetes, yes. The cancer, me and
my daughters have a
rare cancer cell that runs on
their side of the
family as well. So even if it's not him,
somewhere in this long line, I'm somewhere close
to finding out. That's one reason
why I'm propelled
to really find out, because there is a medical
history in my family. And so, ultimately,
whether or not she is
your biological child, she's still a young woman
with very real health issues, <i> and a lot rides on
the results we present here.</i> We say all the time,
there are no small claims
in paternity court. However, in this situation,
we can truly say that your life depends
on these results. I mean, I have no
animosity and no
illness towards her. I'm married myself,
and if somebody was
to come out and say, "Okay, this is a possibility,
that you might be my..."
Guess what? I'm not gonna battle him.
Let's find out. I'm not gonna have no ill will
about with the woman, I'm not gonna have no ill will
with the child, because
at the end of the day, I'm the innocent one,
because whatever
she has animosity, that's with my mama and him.
Because, guess what?
Y'all weren't together. DIERDRE: My point is,
it should've been done. I've been telling him,
"Get a blood test. Stop
signing on the dotted line. "Stop claiming kids that
you know aren't yours." You got two kids
that's not his! They're mine, though!
They're mine, though! They're mine,
and he raised them! They're mine,
he raised them
from birth. They're mine, though. I know who my kids'
daddy is. Let's, let's, let's
bring it down a notch. When he first reached out
and called me, Your Honor, when he first reached out
and called me, we were talking good.
He called me once a week, and this is not no 8, 9, these
are 10, 11, 12 o'clock, 1:00
in the morning phone calls, because he's hiding
from his wife. But this is just ridiculous! You all are acting like
you all are two women he's
involved with intimately! This is a young woman... No, no, like I say... JUDGE LAKE: No, no, no.
No, no, no, no. What I am observing
is a level of animosity, Jerome, that we see with
two women that are involved
with the same man sexually, not involved with the same man
because he's your husband,
she can't take that away, but he potentially might be
her biological father,
which you can't take away. He don't have to
sneak and talk to
anybody on the phone. Why is he sneaking? JUDGE LAKE: Ask him!
Ask him! Every time I come
out of the room,
he's on the phone, he's talking real low.
I do ask him! JUDGE LAKE: Ask him! I do ask him. Why are you sneaking, sir? My reasons for sneaking is
because I, like, I suffer
from a low self-esteem. You know what I'm saying?
So I don't want
no conflict. I feel scared, because
I don't wanna be... JUDGE LAKE: You don't want to
hurt either person. BRUCE: Yeah, I don't. And so what you do
is you avoid the conflict... So how are you a man
but you gotta bow
down to a woman? I'm married. I'm married.
I'm married. No. It don't have nothing
to do with bowing down.
My point is... JUDGE LAKE: We need
some order! (BANGING GAVEL) Let's et some order. BRUCE: Yes. I'm really, really trying to
figure out, Ms. Simmons, why there is so much
anger and animosity. Because I don't think
anybody's after you, or after your life, and look,
even if you believe the
process wasn't the right way, when you look at a beautiful
young woman that has... DIERDRE: Okay... No, no, let me finish
a sentence, 'cause, see,
I'm not your husband. I got to finish a sentence. I know you're
not my husband. JUDGE LAKE: Let me
explain this to you. It's just an innocent
young woman that doesn't
know who her father is. And if it is your husband
or not your husband, it doesn't take anything
away from you to be kind
and open to it, even if you feel like... But you're not letting
me say why I feel
the way I feel, though. I get... Ma'am, I have.
I asked you before,
why the anger, and you said it was
about the process, that they
didn't go about it right. No, I don't want to get
into it a lot, but I want
you to understand... She never like me from the
beginning, because I'm saying
something about the phone. Because of what she
out up on her Facebook? JUDGE LAKE: We're not going to
argue about the Facebook. I'm just saying to you,
you're a woman that's
lived a lot of life, and this is a young woman
that hopes to live
the lobg life you have, and part of the way that
she can do that is to
figure out her history. And... Look... I'm a woman of a
certain age myself. I'm just saying
to you directly,
it serves you no good to in any way argue
about this. Just
support your husband. I'm ready for the results,
and I'm hoping during
that process, whatever it is, respect
the fact that she needs
and deserves to know. Jerome, the envelope. These results were prepared
by DNA Diagnostics,
and they read as follows. JUDGE LAKE: In the case of<i>
Walker v. Simmons,</i> when it comes to
30-year-old
Parthenia Walker, it has been determined
by this court, Mr. Bruce Simmons, you... ...are not her father. I'm sorry. I wish to put
it better, but... PARTHENIA: It's okay. It's whatever God has it. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Walker,
I'm sorry this was not
the answer you wanted. I know you're looking
for closure for
more reasons than just the spiritual,
emotional closure. You need the medical
information. Yes. And for that reason and more,
I am encouraging you
to continue your search. Mr. Simmons, I appreciate
you being open with
this young girl. And Ms. Simmons, despite the
anger I saw you express, when the results came down, you just took a beat,
and just gave her
a moment to process it. And I thank you for that,
because ultimately, this is a really
serious situation. And I want you to find
your biological father. Oh, I'm gonna find him.
I'm determined. I know you are. I wish you all
the very vest of luck. Jerome, court is adjourned.
Please bring up
Ms. Walker. Ma'am, could you come up?
The judge would like
to speak to you. I'm so sorry. I really am.
I just wanted it
so you just know. But don't stop.
Be strong.
You got six kids. Right? You're a mother,
you're a wife.
Get your answers. They're out there, okay?
Good luck to you. Thank you. Okay, honey.
