Please be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello.
This is the case of Duvall/Bovill v. Bovill. Thank you, Jerome.
Good day, everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. Ms.
Bovill, two years ago, you and your mother were shocked when the man you always believed is your dad told you he is not your biological father. You tried to bring the defendant to Paternity Court six months ago, but say he backed out of his appearance. Now that he is here, you state the DNA results will finally prove your case.
Is that correct? Yes, ma'am. JUDGE LAKE: Mr Bovill, you claim for more than 20 years, you held on to a secret and had no choice but to confess your belief that Ms.
Bovill's father is another man. Is that correct? Yes, Your Honor.
Ms. Bovill, tell me what happened two years ago. Two years ago, I received a phone call from another brother of mine, stating that my dad had doubts if he was my father or not due to activities that happened before I was born.
That was during Thanksgiving on a holiday weekend, and. . .
JUDGE LAKE: Can you be more specific? You say "activities. " What kind of activities?
He felt like my mom was unfaithful, and was doing things that wasn't right within the relationship. JUDGE LAKE: Understood. So now, um, when I got the phone call, I kind of brushed it off, and then my brother, James, was on the phone with my dad and that's when I heard him, out of his own mouth, say that he wanted to have a DNA test because he needed his own closure, just to know if I was his daughter or not.
And how old were you when this conversation happened? Twenty-five. JUDGE LAKE: So, your whole life until you were 25 years old, you think this man is your father.
Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Duvall, what in the world are you thinking when your daughter gets this call?
I was in shock. I had no clue that he ever doubted that Carrie was his daughter. Carrie was devastated.
. . Well, I expect so.
My daughter broke down, and this is my only daughter. Mr Bovill. BOVILL: Yes, Your Honor.
You decided to make this call on Thanksgiving weekend, sir? BOVILL: I asked one of my sons for Carrie's number because I wanted to share something with her. When I told my son how I felt about this situation that we're here today for, my son brought the information to Carrie.
What got you to this point? What led you to this point where you said, "This is. .
. I have to talk about this"? Okay, well, when I first met Regina, I lived in Boston, Regina lived in Springfield.
And when I relocated from Boston to Springfield, first two weeks that I got there, people I didn't even know was telling me, "Yo, this guy's telling me that's his woman. " And so, I goes to Regina and I'm asking Regina, "What's this guy talking about? "I've only been in this town for two weeks.
" This went on for, like. . .
Ten years. Ten years? Ten years.
And at the same time, I even addressed it to Regina. "Why does he keep telling me that? " Even her brothers had to go to him and check him on that.
What's going on here, Ms. Duvall? First of all, there is no truth to none of this.
What he just said? DUVALL: Yes, let's start there. Second of all, Mr Bovill, if you doubted me, if you did not trust me, why did you stay?
If you felt like that all those years, you should have left. So, all of these years, Mr Bovill, you believed that this other man, who's married to a family member, could be Carrie's biological father? Yes, Your Honor.
What convinced me was, four years ago, I went to North Carolina, and I finally met some of Carrie's cousins. And the person that I'm talking to, one of her cousins, is his granddaughter. Your Honor, if I had a picture and showed it to you right now, of her cousin, you would believe that would be Carrie.
If I showed you her picture, you would believe that was Carrie. And that's when I said, you know, "I knew I was right. I knew I was right.
" You saw a picture of this man's granddaughter. Granddaughter. And it looks exactly like.
. . I said, "That's my.
. . " And tears came out of my eyes.
That's when I said, "I knew I was right. I knew I was right. " Uh, if you look at anybody in my family, from my first cousins down to my third cousins, we all have a same trait.
One, we're all blind, we all wear glasses. Two, we all smile exactly the same and the older I get, the more I start looking like my other cousin. The older she gets, another cousin starts looking like me.
It's in our genes. We all look alike. So, Mr Bovill, all of these years, you have these doubts.
. . I had these doubts.
. . .
but you never share them. BOVILL: The things that went on before Carrie was born, the relationship they had, because her and this person I'm talking about, I mean, after everybody was telling me to keep my eyes on her and watching her, now I'm watching them, too. They used to disappear all the time, "Oh, he's my whist partner, he was my best friend before you came.
. . " Your Honor, first of all, we are a very close-knit family.
The grandchildren are 70-plus deep of my mother's grands and great-grands. And all of them look alike. But the one thing that I did not want to happen here is that my family values would be tarnished with the babbling and the things that he is saying that has no substance to them!
JUDGE LAKE: So let me ask you this. During the window of time in which Carrie was conceived, the question really becomes, were you intimate with anyone else during that time. .
. No, ma'am. .
. . where there could be another potential father for this beautiful young woman?
No, ma'am. At the end of the day, in Paternity Court, that's the question we have to answer. JUDGE LAKE: Now, what is interesting is in the court papers, I found her birth certificate.
Now, on her birth certificate, there is no father listed. (STAMMERING) None of my names are on none of my kids' birth certificates. You didn't let him sign the birth certificate, Ms.
Duvall? Ma'am, no, that's not the case. Mr Bovill never took the time to go there and sign those birth certificates.
I told him, time and time again, "You are a grown man. "Go to that hospital, to wherever, and sign "your children's birth certificates! "I cannot sign them for you!
" Like I said, we all made mistakes. At the time, before Carrie was born, we both made mistakes. See what I'm saying?
JUDGE LAKE: Yes. And I'm not holding no grudge against her, but during 10 years of living in Springfield, people that I didn't know coming up to me, see what I'm saying? Even when we moved to South Carolina, this same person was so infatuated with Regina.
. . Now, she's my wife now.
Anything that I did with my kids, he got mad. You are saying that this gentleman interfered in your relationship, in your parenting, so much, that you felt like Ms. Duvall and this person, they were having a relationship.
BOVILL: Yes. And this was all occurring during the window of time in which Carrie was conceived and born. This was going on all of that time?
Yes, Your Honor. Did he ever say anything to you specifically about actually being Carrie's father? Yes, he did.
JUDGE LAKE: What did he say? When I moved to South Carolina, he'd go and say, "That's my baby. That's my baby.
" See what I'm saying? About Carrie? (BOVILL STAMMERING) Yeah, about Carrie.
"That's my baby. That's my baby. " That is a lie straight from hell.
BOVILL: Your Honor. . .
That's a lie straight from hell. So let me ask you this, and we are in court and I need your answer to be truthful. Why would they start this type of rumor?
Why? Especially a person in the family. What would be the motive?
DUVALL: The motive, to me, if he was saying any of that, it was. . .
The motive was he was just a liar, too. Were you ever intimate with this other man? No.
For the hundredth time, no. I wouldn't even think about being in nothing with this man. When Carrie was born, even though I had these doubts, I still loved her, and I treated her like she was mine.
CARRIE: How? How can you say. .
. How can you say that in court? How?
Because, because. . .
You have never! You have never been a father! (SOBBING) You have never been a father!
Stop lying like you have! (INDISTINCT ARGUING) Don't talk over her, Mr Bovill. BOVILL: All right.
You came to (INAUDIBLE) graduation, you ain't come to mine. You know what, and I apologize for that. .
. No! No!
'Cause you have never been a father. You had one birthday party for me. You gave me.
. . You say boxes of clothes, giving me things is not being a father!
I suffered because I never had you! And you know what, you did suffer. It's not fair.
. . You know, it's not fair, Carrie.
I owe you an apology, Carrie. You know, I owe you an apology. CARRIE: I have suffered, my brothers have suffered!
Yeah, you've suffered. You did, and I owe you an apology. Yes, you owe me an apology.
. . JUDGE LAKE: Mr Bovill?
BOVILL: Yes, Your Honor? I'ma ask you one last time to be. .
. I'm so sick of hearing your mouth. BOVILL: All right.
I won't say another word, Your Honor I mean, just the sound of your voice. . .
I won't say nothing. . .
. in my ear right now, while this young girl is trying to express to you what your absence, what your dysfunction, what your mistakes have cost her. .
. Yes, you're right, Your Honor. Go ahead, Ms.
Bovill. You say you and your brothers have suffered. CARRIE: We all have suffered.
(SOBBING QUIETLY) (WHISPERING INAUDIBLY) CARRIE: (SOBBING) I have let people hurt me because of you and not having the love of a father. And if you have a father, you would never understand what not having a father does to you. Especially being a black woman.
And I love God with all my heart, but. . .
BOVILL: That was your mother and your grandmother. . .
It was not them! You are grown. They wouldn't let me come see you.
Mr Bovill, don't make me come off this bench! CARRIE: You are grown. And my mother had never, even when we tried to down-talk you, she used to say, "No, that's still your father!
" My grandmother, my grandmother would never. . .
She brought us to Massachusetts and sent us to your mother. To visit you! My mother did that.
My mother. CARRIE: How? My grandmother brought us on a bus from South Carolina to Massachusetts.
BOVILL: No, she didn't. My mother did. CARRIE: That picture that I sent here, with me and his other daughter, and my other two brothers sitting on a couch was when we went to Boston.
That was the first time I've been back to Boston since I was born that I can remember. And when you went back, did he make an attempt to get to know you, to see you? He was in jail, so that was the only way I got to see him.
I went a couple of years ago. My aunt that lives in Massachusetts brought me there for Christmas. And I went and stayed with my sister.
And I went and visited him, and I spent the day with him and that was it. But the entire time we together, all he can talk about is the past of him and my mother. That has absolutely nothing to do with me.
I'm 25, I'm not a child. I know what's going on. I'm very intelligent, I have a brain.
I don't give two flying bananas about what they've done before me. He's talking about "Ten years," but, I don't care. It has nothing to do with me, I'm the child here.
And you have to be able, in you, to get over that because I shouldn't be doing this right now. I shouldn't be having to do this with you. You are correct.
You are correct. And you are a smart young woman. And I think you can see now, even for me, why I am getting so agitated, because everybody's talking in circles, everybody got stories, and I still don't have a great description as to what the circumstances were surrounding your conception.
That's really all I'm here to get to. Because that really is the end-all, be-all of this particular saga. Mmm-hmm.
JUDGE LAKE: This particular moment in time is about that, to get the answer you need. Now, I wanna hear your story, and part of that is your witness. And you brought someone with you.
I would like you to stand, sir. Please. And state your name for the court.
James Bovill III. JUDGE LAKE: Please step to the podium, Mr Bovill, I'd like to hear from you. And so Mr Bovill is your father.
That's my father. JUDGE LAKE: You're her brother. JAMES: Yes, ma'am.
Okay, and you came to court to testify today as to. . .
JAMES: Me and my dad have a close relationship so, like, he had told me this, like, four years ago, a few years ago when he come down south, but you know, I had brushed it off, you know, because it was really like. . .
I didn't really, like, find it necessary to interrupt my sister with this, so. . .
I didn't tell her. So he mentioned it to you but you decided not to say anything to your sister at the time. Yeah, I didn't feel like the time was right or the place was right.
JUDGE LAKE: What did he say to you in particular? I mean, when he was saying that family member, he was like, "Don't she look just like Carrie? "This could be such-and-such's baby.
" So, only thing I could go by is what he believed and how he feel. I can't go off on, like. .
. The only thing I could do was just step in the gateway and be there for her, which is my sister. Did he say he was not Carrie's father or did he say he wasn't sure?
He said he wasn't sure. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. Thank you for your testimony.
Jerome? I'm ready for the results. These result were prepared by DNA Diagnostics, and they read as follows.
JUDGE LAKE: In the case of Duvall/Bovill v. Bovill, when it comes to 25-year-old Carrie Bovill, it has been determined by this court Mr Bovill, you. .
. Are the father. CARRIE: I knew he was my father, but now that he knows and he has no more reason to doubt me as his daughter, I really just wanna tell him that I'm so sorry that you missed out.
And I'm so sorry that you went through all that you had to go through, Dad. 'Cause I know it was a bad time in both of your lives, and I just wanna say that I forgive you. (SOBBING) I forgive you for everything.
In this moment, it is very valuable to just say, "I know I hurt you, "but this is why I came today, because I didn't want to miss another minute. " And, Carrie, you were right. He missed out, and I think he knows he did.
And hopefully today, this truth can be the start of a new beginning for you all. We have counseling and resources for you. I wish you all the very best of luck.
Court is adjourned.
