You may be seated.
Hello, Your Honor.
Hello.
This is the case of Ashley v. Bullock.
Thank you, Jerome. Good day, everyone.
ALL: Good day.
Ms. Ashley, you say that after years of searching,
you finally located the man you believe to be your biological father.
You say that after finding Mr. Bullock,
he embraced you as his daughter before cruelly rejecting you.
The same way he did when you were a child.
You say you have no doubt he is your biological father.
And plan to prove it today.
JUDGE LAKE: Is that correct?
Yes, Your Honor.
JUDGE LAKE: Mr. Bullock, you say that
even though you were once married to Ms. Ashley's mother,
you say that it is medically impossible for you to be her biological father.
You say you are just a nice guy who ended up in an awkward situation.
And you are 100% certain
Ms. Ashley is not your daughter. Is that correct?
That's correct, Your Honor.
So, Ms. Ashley.
How did Mr. Bullock
reject you as a child?
Well, at age two I went to foster care.
And at age six, I was adopted by a single woman.
She gave me a good life.
Um, she gave me a real good life.
But we bumped heads a lot because I always knew I was adopted.
I always knew I had a father out there and a biological mother.
But I always didn't know why
they weren't there. So...
It was always a hard time, you know, growing up.
You know, I played basketball. I ran track.
All of my friends, they had their fathers there,
rushing out of work.
Hurrying up to get to their games. Not me, never, never.
Never called a man a father, never had a father. So...
And that hurts you, I can see that.
Yeah, It bothers me.
I would like to know, you know.
You deserve to know.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
BULLOCK: Your Honor, that isn't how it happened at all. Um...
At that point the reason we couldn't take care, I'm gonna leave it like that.
JUDGE LAKE: Okay.
But, um.
I tried several attempts, several times as a matter of fact.
That Saturday she was tooken away, I went down.
Ma'am, I was adopted.
No, no she wasn't adopted right away, 'cause I was paying child support.
Okay, so if you were paying child support you knew exactly where I was at.
I went to get her and a certain party told Child Protective...
Said, "No...
"Don't give 'em to the father."
Because if the father upset with the mother, he might do something to the kid.
And that's why I wasn't able to get her back.
So, you said you were looking for her.
Yes ma'am, I looked for Ebony for all my life.
I was in the same spot where you left me.
(SCOFFS)
Okay um, okay.
So what kind of looking were you doing cause I found you and that wasn't so hard.
Here he go, he got all these stories, you can go tell stories.
Just tell the truth.
Now the truth is... I don't believe she is mine, to tell the truth.
JUDGE LAKE: I was just about to ask you. Why were you looking for her,
if you didn't believe that she was yours?
I was there when she was born. I signed the birth certificate.
You know, I was in love with her mother. I wanted her to be my daughter.
But...
JUDGE LAKE: Were you married to her mother?
I was married to her mother. Yes.
When she was born you were married?
No, ma'am.
We got married afterward.
When I found him, which was on Facebook, um...
I wrote him an email on Facebook.
And told him, you know, "If you know who I am please contact me."
So you submitted that message that you're speaking about, to the court.
Yes, it's right there on... There you go.
JUDGE LAKE: This is it, it says...
JUDGE LAKE: (READING)
BULLOCK: And we talked. We had a beautiful conversation.
Yeah.
And when you... When I just read that, I could see the tears in your eyes.
Because he is so full of it. Like why you wasting my time? Stop wasting my time.
When you say... Honestly I want to understand what you're feeling.
I feel like this.
If somebody hit me up right now and said,
"Oh, I think you're my father," or "You're my mom,"
I would have been like, "Listen here.
"Let's get this straight from the get-go."
I'm grown. I can accept it. I'm not a little girl. I'm grown.
I can accept him saying you know,
"I was with your mom but I don't know.
"But we can handle this."
And that's what I said.
That's exactly what I said.
No, what you said was,
"Hello daughter, come visit me and my wife.
"Let me take you and meet all my friends."
After the fact, after the fact what, that you accepted me as your daughter?
Right? You bring me down there with my kids.
I meet your coworkers. I met your family.
But you are not my dad though, right?
You were playing a role like you're playing one right now.
ASHLEY: Come on now.
BULLOCK: Your Honor.
I want here to be my daughter. I was there when she was born.
I signed the birth certificate.
So, now she's back into my life here...
ASHLEY: Okay, so how embarrassing is this. I tell him...
I bring him to my family, meet everybody my family, meet my kids
and now he's screaming that he ain't my daddy.
JUDGE LAKE: So, he accepted you when you first reconnected?
ASHLEY: Yeah.
You say he answered the phone, "Hi daughter."
He invited you to come down
to visit him with your children.
In your mind, there weren't any questions as to whether...
I thought everything was cool.
You thought it was fine.
You thought you had found your father.
ASHLEY: Yeah.
After all of these years.
That ain't how it went down.
That's not how it went down?
No.
No, we had not... We talked on Facebook, the first thing I told her, I said,
"You know, I've been told that I wasn't your father."
That's what I told her, Now she can have it in the back of her mind.
But still we continued to communicate.
I wanted her to be in my life. I let her come to visit me.
Her and her grandkids. Beautiful grandkids.
I told her, I said... Um, everything I'd say to her is a negative.
She in my house.
And act like I'm not there, ignoring me...
You didn't even look at me for two days.
The first two days that I was there. You're just full of it.
BULLOCK: Okay, okay.
Okay, I'll be 100 then.
Yeah, be 100.
BULLOCK: I'll be 100, Your Honor.
I accepted her as my daughter when she was born.
And then I knew she wasn't
my daughter, because the time just wasn't right.
She's not mine and I can prove it. I brought a a...
Board here, with the time frame.
You brought an exhibit here?
Yes, ma'am.
Please step over to it and explain to the court what you were...
Please.
...speaking of.
I'm gonna show you, Your Honor.
I met her mother right here.
This when I met her mother, July now.
JUDGE LAKE: In July.
Yes, ma'am.
Um, now I'm going to count, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Ebony is supposed to have been born right here.
JUDGE LAKE: In April.
Yes ma'am.
But Ebony was born...
In November. So I figure if she was born in November
that early, she should have been in an incubator
or something. She was nine pound.
Now there's no way.
I was nine pounds? I was five pounds.
That is a huge window. That is a very huge window.
What you're saying is Ebony was born just
four months after you met her mother.
But she was a nine-pound full-term baby.
Yes, ma'am.
So, did you go to a doctor's appointment of anything?
BULLOCK: Me and her mother weren't living together then.
When Ebony was born, I was in New York, on vacation.
But you say you signed the birth certificate.
Yes.
Why?
Why would you do that?
BULLOCK: Because I was in love with her mother.
Did you believe Ebony was yours,
Ms. Ashley was your daughter, when you signed the birth certificate?
BULLOCK: No, I knew she wasn't.
JUDGE LAKE: Oh, now I'm getting a news flash. You're saying...
"I knew she wasn't mine, because of the way the timeline mapped out.
"But because I loved her mother and thought we were going to be a family,
"I took responsibility for Ebony, for Ms. Ashley."
Ms. Ashley, did you ever hear that any other man could be your biological father...
No, ma'am.
In your life?
Never.
ASHLEY: This is what he wanna do.
I'm only his daughter when it's convenient for him.
You know? It's an honor for him to be my father, not the other way around.
Okay, so...
(AUDIENCE CLAPPING)
If he wants to stand up here and make it seem like, you know,
I'm doing something to him or he wanna make a show...
Go right ahead. Because if he's my father, good for you. If he is not, hey.
My life is not going to change.
So, Mr. Bullock, when you're attempting to prove your case, and you are...
And I understand the confusion as I look at that timeline,
if that's in fact how it happened.
But what I don't understand is,
it seem as if you don't understand Ms. Ashley's argument.
It's almost like she's just pulling at straws or she's making this up.
You do understand why this young woman is convinced you're her biological father,
don't you?
BULLOCK: Okay.
We wouldn't be in this situation right now, if Ebony treated me like a human being.
ASHLEY: Treated you like what?
Just because I don't...
Talk to me...
You know, she curses me out.
I do not cuss you out.
I'm real with you.
You just mad because I tell you the truth.
You don't curse me out every chance you get for no reason at all?
(ARGUING INDISTINCTLY)
Yes, I sure was 'cause, you full of it.
(ALL TALKING TOGETHER)
JUDGE LAKE: Let's talk one at a time.
Ebby's the devil.
I'm the devil?
Towards me now.
JUDGE LAKE: Listen.
BULLOCK: Not towards my family but towards me.
Listen.
ASHLEY: I'm the devil.
Listen.
I need to know if she is my daughter or not
if I'm gonna put up with this kind of behavior.
I need to know if she is my daughter.
Because there is no way I'm gonna let a child that's not mine
put up with this kind of behavior.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
This is the part now that I'm not understanding.
Ms. Ashley, you're saying you just want some answers.
Yeah.
What kind of questions are you asking?
I asked him like, "Why?"
You heard him say he signed my birth certificate, he was there for me.
Where did you go?
Why did you leave?
Why did we get adopted?
Where were you? Where were you?
I was at work when you got tooken.
It wasn't my fault. I tried to get you back.
What am I supposed to do? The law steps in.
Your Honor, the law steps in, what I supposed to do?
Every time he gets around, we argue and then he turns around and does something like,
for example, "Happy birthday." He wants to put on my post.
We argue and then he hits me on Facebook.
No, when I tell things, I mean it from my heart.
I mean it from my heart.
JUDGE LAKE: If he sent you a message
that says... (READING)
JUDGE LAKE: That's a beautiful message.
If you tell this young woman. "Hey, hello daughter,
"come visit me, bring your children."
Write her these kinds of messages on her birthday,
and now you're standing before me saying,
"I know for certain that is not my biological child."
I have always known, Your Honor. If Ebony
wasn't such a messed-up person towards me,
we wouldn't be standing here today.
Are you suggesting that if Ashley weren't expressing this level
of confusion and anger towards you,
that you would have just
embraced her and never said a word?
Yes, ma'am.
But, how am I supposed to be?
Explain to me. How am I supposed to be?
You are supposed to act like a human being.
A decent human being.
A human being has emotions and feelings and I am showing them to you.
BULLOCK: Yeah.
(SCOFFS)
So is it that you don't believe she's your daughter,
or you don't like the way she treats you?
No, I know she is not my daughter but I don't like the way she treats me.
So, Mr. Bullock, as I read the opening statement,
and looked through the court papers...
You said you have medical evidence?
Okay, Your Honor, when I was in the military...
We was doing training, what we used was practice grenades, and one of them went off.
One of my testicles got destroyed.
And the doctor said that "There's a chance that you won't be able to bear kids."
Do you have any other children?
No, ma'am.
All right, that's... That's interesting.
And I think the court needs to ask some further questions.
So with that said, the court would like to call in a medical consultant.
Dr. Samantha Brown-Parks.
Jerome, will you please escort the doctor in.
JEROME: Sure.
Thank you.
Hello, Dr. Brown-Parks.
BROWN-PARKS: Hi there.
We are here discussing a paternity issue
and the defendant Mr. Bullock has just offered testimony
that suggests that during his service...
A hand grenade, a trained flash hand grenade.
An hand grenade exploded.
And one of his testicles was injured.
He then consulted a medical doctor,
was told that he had a disrupted testicle,
and that he may not be able to father children.
So I want to first ask you, what exactly is a disrupted testicle?
"A disrupted testicle" is kind of a broad term,
meaning that something has caused
the sperm to not be able to get out of the testes,
during intercourse.
Now, it sounds like it was only one testicle.
Was it just one testicle, sir?
Yes, Your Honor.
So, is it possible then, with a man,
with one disrupted testicle, to father a child?
So most men have two functioning testicles,
and produce somewhere in the order of 1,000 sperm a second.
That equals millions of sperm that are transferred during intercourse.
So even at that rate, it only takes one to make a baby.
So, there is a still a possibility if he has the other functioning testicle
that he could potentially father a child.
Definitely.
After hearing the testimony from the doctor,
Mr. Bullock, do you feel differently?
Do you feel perhaps Ms. Ashley could be your biological child?
Your Honor, me and my wife, we've been married 20 years.
Never used protection, and we don't have any kids.
JUDGE LAKE: So, Ms. Ashley.
I know this has been difficult.
And you've had to relive a very painful time in your childhood.
And you've been through a lot.
What do you hope for today? What are your hopes?
Honestly I hope he is, just because if he's not, I won't know who is.
And that's the only reason.
JUDGE LAKE: Because if he is not, you don't have another name.
Understood. Sir, what are you hoping for?
Well... (CLEARS THROAT) If she is mine, then,
I could put up with the bull,
'cause she is mine.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Trust me, if I ain't, you ain't got to worry about me ever.
You know, and that's what I'm saying.
Ever.
I think it's time for us to get the truth,
so we can figure out how to move forward.
Jerome.
(SIGHS)
JUDGE LAKE: Thank you.
JEROME: You're welcome.
JUDGE LAKE: These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows.
It's an honor for him to be my father. Not the other way around.
JUDGE LAKE: In the case of Ashley v. Bullock,
when it comes to 28-year-old Ebony Ashley,
it has been determined by this court,
Mr. Bullock, you...
Are not the father.
(AUDIENCE GASPS)
JUDGE LAKE: I'm sorry, Ms. Ashley.
It's okay.
JUDGE LAKE: I'm sorry.
(HICCUPS)
(SNIFFLES) It's okay.
I'm happy that I could get you at least this level of closure.
ASHLEY: Right.
BULLOCK: Can I say something Your Honor?
Ebony, she's a beautiful child, you know, I hope she do find her father.
When she do, I hope she treats him a lot better then she treated me.
JUDGE LAKE: Listen. There is a young woman
standing across from you, at 28 years old,
that has never met her biological father,
and she deserves to know who he is.
Yes, ma'am.
JUDGE LAKE: What makes that more difficult is that
you signed her birth certificate.
And in many ways, you kind of blocked off the path, if you know what I mean.
That from then on, the state's not looking for her father.
No one's looking for her father. Her father of record is on her birth certificate.
And so this is, in large part, by...
Because of your actions that she is standing here in this moment.
And I think you could show a little bit more compassion.
Because even though you weren't trying,
I think your intention at that time was good.
What has happened, the result
has been a very confusing childhood for this woman.
And when she says, "It doesn't feel that great,"
I believe her.
I can't stop the love for her. I still love her. I can't stop that.
JUDGE LAKE: And that's fair.
And you know what I think, in that moment,
that's the most beautiful thing you can just say.
Is that you just love her.
JUDGE LAKE: So, I'm going to send you all off to Dr. Jeff,
and I want you all to continue to talk about it.
From that space, from the space of love,
that's where we can start to begin to get through this, all right?
I wish you the very best of luck.
Court is adjourned.
Jerome, can you please escort Ms. Ashley out.
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