You may be seated.
Hello, Your Honor.
Hello.
This is the case of Garnett v. Langston.
Thank you, Jerome. Good day everyone.
AUDIENCE: Good day.
Ms. Garnett, you and your mother, Ms. Miller,
have opened your case to prove to the defendant
that he is your biological father.
You are baffled,
because you consider him a daddy and a best friend,
and state his doubt is unwarranted,
and demand an apology once the results are revealed.
Is that correct?
Yes, Your Honor.
Mr. Langston, you claim you have always known
you weren't Ms. Garnett's biological father,
and feel after the results are revealed,
you are the one who deserves an apology.
Is that correct?
Yes, Your Honor.
Now, how did this all start?
It started, um, with a text message
about a couple months ago.
Okay.
Um...
That wasn't the very beginning,
but this is why we're here.
The text message brought us here,
and this is, um, the evidence that I brought in today.
JUDGE LAKE: Oh, okay.
Can I give it to you?
Please, Jerome.
So this started with a text.
Mmm-hmm.
So after, um, almost two years
of reaching out to my father, after visiting him in 2015,
I, um, was pleading to get him to respond.
He wasn't responding.
And he finally responded with this message.
"So I think your mother blank me and you
"about your birth father being me.
"She was messing around when you were born,
"I don't wanna keep causing you pain,
"but I have mixed feelings about it."
"Talk to your mother and find out the truth."
You sent this text message?
Mr. Langston?
Yes, Your Honor, I did.
So why were you estranged for two years? What happened?
GARNETT: We live in different states, Your Honor,
but we had always been close.
I went to visit him in Chicago for a funeral.
Um, I was by his side for one of our family members,
and everything was great,
but when I returned back home,
I don't know what happened.
He just cut off communication.
Well, I wasn't talking to her like I normally do.
JUDGE LAKE: Why?
Because I was just harboring this gut feeling
that I had, right from the beginning,
that she's not my daughter.
I had it right from the beginning when she was born.
JUDGE LAKE: Really?
Yeah, I did.
Ms. Garnett, you grew up as a daddy's girl.
You said he's your best friend.
He's always been my dad. I've always known him to be my dad.
When I became an adult, around 21 years old,
that's when we started really becoming close.
Two years ago, when I was at the funeral with him,
he had brought up, for the very first time,
that he thought I may not have been his daughter,
which blew my mind.
And he went on and on about him and my mother's past,
and all this,
but then, after he vomited all this tragedy on me,
he recanted and took it back.
I was sparing her feeling 'cause I've seen the fact right away,
and I'm not trying to hurt her, I love her.
JUDGE LAKE: And I can see you're emotional, just thinking about her.
But, what, you feel like you just have to tell the truth?
I've got to. I can't harbor this.
JUDGE LAKE: What made you keep this secret
that you had this doubt, all this time?
LANGSTON: A couple of issues.
One day, she used to live out south,
I came through the back.
Her aunty downstairs let me in.
I walked upstairs.
I didn't knock on the door.
I looked in, I see this guy sitting on the couch with her,
like he running this game to get up on something.
I knocked on the door. I said, "What's going on?"
"Ain't nothing, ain't nothing. This my cousin."
I said, "Hey, you can get out of here, cousin. You can leave."
And, "But, but... He just..."
I don't believe it.
So you believe that she was with someone else when she was with you.
Yeah, I believe that.
So, Ms. Miller, who is this cousin?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
He was not my cousin.
He was my sister's husband's cousin.
And he was just a family friend, as well.
Was he someone you were intimate with?
No, never.
Was he at the house trying to talk to you?
See if you could have a relationship.
Well, he did like me.
But there was no way that I...
I wasn't interested in him,
and I made that known to him all the time.
JUDGE LAKE: So, Mr. Langston,
what other doubts do you have?
I gotta play cousin.
She immediately told me, 'cause I pressured her,
"Did you do anything with him?"
She kept saying, "No," then she came around.
"Okay, I tell you the truth.
"Yeah, I gave him some
"'cause he kept knocking on the door begging.
"So I finally gave in and gave him some."
Who did you get me mixed up with?
I'm serious.
Man, don't, don't...
Who are you getting me mixed up with?
Don't play that.
I'm serious.
You did that, you told me that.
I swear on my dead father you did that
and said that to me.
Who is this?
Get up off of that.
JUDGE LAKE: So, wait a minute, Mr. Langston.
When was this that you confronted her?
And why is it that you're just saying something?
I was talking to her on the phone.
JUDGE LAKE: Okay.
And she told me who been over there.
And I said, "Yeah? What he trying to do?"
"He was trying to get some."
I said, "Yeah, did you give him some?"
"No, I didn't give him none."
I said, "Hey, you know how I am."
"If you did it, you did it."
"No, I didn't do it."
I said, "Come on. You're mine, even if you did it."
"Yeah, I gave him some.
"He knocking on the door, he kept on begging and begging.
"I finally gave him some."
JUDGE LAKE: So, wait...
The Lord is my witness.
So, Ms. Miller, you don't remember this conversation.
I don't remember any of it.
JUDGE LAKE: Do you remember the play cousin?
I don't know who he's talking about.
JUDGE LAKE: Do you remember the play cousin?
Do you remember this person he's talking about?
His play cousin or my play cousin?
He said it was his.
LANGSTON: My play cousin.
I don't know who you're talking about.
(SCOFFS)
JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Miller, when you got pregnant...
Mmm-hmm.
You knew he was the biological father?
I knew he was... He was the only one I was sleeping with.
He knew, didn't he?
MILLER: He the one who told me, he was... He told me...
Upon conceiving, that I was pregnant.
JUDGE LAKE: Really?
I don't recall that.
I do.
I just don't recall that.
I don't know how you can forget that,
we talked about it in 2001.
I forget a lot of things.
Okay.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
When the baby was born, Ms. Garnett,
did Mr. Langston participate in the birth?
Not at all.
He was just not that type of person.
I don't even expect him to.
Did he sign the birth certificate?
MILLER: No.
I paid child support.
Not only 18 years, I paid it 20 years.
They start sending me checks back for over-payment.
$1,700, $800, $1,000, $500.
So how come you didn't take that $100, $1,500, $1,000,
and pay for a DNA test before I turned 36 years old?
(APPLAUSE)
I tell you, I tell you why.
I have an answer for you. Your Honor,
I got a birth certificate right here saying that, where you see...
JUDGE LAKE: Let me see that, Jerome.
This birth certificate says what, sir?
LANGSTON: I'm not on that.
'Cause you didn't come to sign it.
You have to come to sign it.
LANGSTON: I'm not there.
JUDGE LAKE: So...
LANGSTON: If I'm not in there,
why did you take $100,000 from me?
MILLER: I didn't took nothing from you.
The child support did.
The state took it, not me.
Your Honor, he was thinking that it's a possibility
that she wasn't his.
I took myself to a hospital
and I had a DNA test done.
He never followed up.
For him not to turn around and follow up,
and I thought it was the end of it
when he didn't follow through.
And he was always a part of her life from that point on.
I mean, I thought that he came to his senses
and he realized that she was his,
because he never asked, he never said anything else about that, until now.
JUDGE LAKE: So, Ms. Garnett, tell Mr. Langston
how you do feel in this moment.
When he sent that text to me...
MILLER: She was crushed.
(CRYING) I cried my hardest cry.
Oh, baby, don't do that.
(GARNETT CRYING)
I was devastated.
I felt like he was taking my identity away from me
because I've always known I was a Langston.
And I have so much about my father.
When he came back into my life when I was an adult,
it was like a piece of the puzzle was missing.
And we became best friends.
I found out why I was so directionally-challenged,
'cause he is.
You know, there's so much...
(LAUGHS)
You know, he's been in Chicago all his life, he still gets lost.
I get lost in a circle.
(LAUGHS)
You know, it's just... There's just...
You know, not only the personality,
it's just so many other things
that we just bonded and clicked.
I don't think we would have been able to do that if he wasn't my father.
And you enjoy this relationship, Mr. Langston?
Listen, I didn't wanna hurt her.
When I hit that phone and did that text,
it crushed me when I pushed that button,
'cause I know the effect it was gonna have on her,
and I don't wanna send her through that, 'cause I love her.
So why am I gonna send her through that?
I didn't want to.
But how am I gonna deny how I feel in the inside?
How am I gonna do that when I got grand-babies
and I want them to be my grand-babies.
That'd be the best news I could ever have.
I ain't never flown on no plane before.
I came on that plane and I came here, and...
That's something I don't do, and I'm 61 years old.
But I did it 'cause I wanna resolve this.
Is she my daughter? I run to the plane and jump on it.
(APPLAUSE)
But the truth is you've had these doubts and you just felt like,
"I wanna be able to look at this entire relationship with a clear lens."
I do. Listen, this is how I look at something like this.
If I can't trust myself, how am I gonna trust you or anybody else?
I might do something I never did before,
and I look and say, "You did that?
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
"What?
"You did that?"
So how am I gonna trust you if I can't trust me?
So I don't know who to trust.
(GARNETT LAUGHS)
(MILLER LAUGHS)
Jerome, I could not have explained it any better.
JEROME: That was perfect.
(ALL LAUGHING)
LANGSTON: And I live by that.
And for me to send her that text,
how do you think it affected me?
You think I wanna hurt her?
That's the last thing I wanna do is hurt her.
If she's not my daughter,
it's gonna have an effect on me.
(SNIFFLES)
MILLER: Don't cry.
And I wanna get into grand-babies...
...life.
JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Garnett.
This has really affected you.
LANGSTON: It affect me.
JUDGE LAKE: This has been very difficult, I can see.
(SNIFFLES)
I don't wanna send her through that.
But I got my feelings,
and I wanna know the truth.
Believe me, I wouldn't have jumped on no plane
if I didn't feel like I wanted to resolve this situation.
My eyes were bugged like this on that plane all the way to Atlanta.
(ALL LAUGHING)
So, Ms. Garnett, the court noticed during...
Amidst all of this confusion,
you began to post on Facebook.
GARNETT: Mmm-hmm.
JUDGE LAKE: You've put this poster up.
Can you please step up to the plasma
and tell the court why you posted this.
So, um, after the text message,
I did some soul-searching.
I'm just laying in my bed looking through my phone,
and I saw a picture of myself. This picture.
And it reminded me of this picture of my grandfather.
This is Mr. Langston's father.
And I noticed some similarities in our faces.
And, um, I posted it to Facebook
to get some support about the situation
without putting all my business out there.
I said, "This is my grandfather.
"Do you see the resemblance?" You know.
I even had cousins respond.
"Oh, my goodness. You look just like Papa. I never realized that."
And you said people supported you in this.
They did.
They said, "Yes, you do look like your grandfather."
Yeah, they were even shocked.
And that further made you feel like,
"This man is my biological father.
"I just look like my grandfather."
Yes, it gave me more comfort.
Mr. Langston, do you see the resemblance to your father?
LANGSTON: To be honest, I do.
But this the thing, right here...
My father put me out.
She was helping me take care of my mama.
She's a good person. I ain't gonna take that from her.
My father put me out 'cause...
He said, "I don't like how you're treating her."
So she was there in the house, with my father.
So...
What are you trying to say?
What are you trying to say?
LANGSTON: I'm trying to say, I don't know.
You done lost your mind.
I ain't lost my mind.
You lost your mind.
I don't know.
So instead of you admitting that I'm your daughter,
because I look like your father...
Thank you. I appreciate it.
I don't trust you.
You is a good person...
You is a good person, but I don't trust you.
JUDGE LAKE: Hold on.
But I don't trust myself.
JUDGE LAKE: Hold on, Mr. Langston.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
You know...
So, wait.
You believe that you may not be
Ms. Garnett's biological father,
but you believe that your father may be?
I don't believe that. I don't believe that.
I'm saying there's some resemblance there, and everything,
then who knows?
JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Garnett, you can step back to the podium.
MILLER: Your dad and me.
Who knows?
Your dad and me.
Thank you.
I know my father, too.
As much as I loved your mom, please.
Ms. Miller, I don't wanna have to ask you this question,
but I have to, respectfully, because we've come this far,
and we're trying to get down to the truth.
Was there ever any type of relationship
between you and Mr. Langston's father,
when you lived in the house with him?
A father and daughter.
I looked at him like he was my family.
I looked at his mom like she was my mom.
I never looked at him in any other way.
And so there's absolutely no doubt in your mind
that Mr. Langston is your daughter,
Ms. Garnett's biological father.
No doubt. No doubt.
Well...
(JEROME CHUCKLING)
In light of all of this, I think it's time to get the results.
Jerome?
(APPLAUSE)
These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics,
and they read as follows.
In the case of Garnett v. Langston,
when it comes to 36-year-old, Shanna Garnett,
Mr. Langston...
You...
Are not the father.
(ALL GASPING)
Stay over here.
Are not the father?
JUDGE LAKE: He is not her biological father.
What?
Now don't look at me.
Ask her who your daddy really is.
(APPLAUSE)
I'm gonna love you.
Don't do that.
(SOBBING)
You're my baby.
(APPLAUSE)
(SOBBING CONTINUES)
You're my baby.
You're my baby.
See, Your Honor, this is what I was afraid of.
Oh, my God.
To see her go through that hurt,
that I was hoping didn't happen.
Mom, there's something we're missing, Mom.
MILLER: Uh...
And it's called another man.
The DNA does not lie.
Ms. Garnett, I am so sorry.
I could tell from your face you were truly shocked.
(SOBBING)
And this was not the answer you wanted.
Wasn't the answer I wanted, either.
You will get through this.
You're strong,
and the truth is there to help set you free.
We say that for a reason.
That's what we're talking about.
And she's gonna need you to support her as well,
Mr. Langston.
I got her back.
I wish you all the very best of luck.
(APPLAUSE)
Court is adjourned.
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