Please be seated. -Hello, Your Honor. -Hello.
This is the case of Elston v. Elston. Thank you, Jerome.
Good day, everyone. [audience] Good day. Mr and Ms.
Elston, you previously appeared in this courtroom with concerns surrounding the paternity of two-year-old Carson. Let's take a look. We started sleeping together two weeks after we met.
Well, who else did you have sex with? My friend's boyfriend. [audience exclaiming] It was on Valentine's day, we had a threesome, -she knew about it.
-[audience exclaiming] The baby don't look like me, he don't have my nose, my ears and my eyes, or nothing. My unborn child and Carson deserves their father, so I felt that we need to get this all cleared up. When it comes to 20-month-old Carson Gregory, Mr Elston, you.
. . -are not the father.
-[audience exclaiming sadly] Ms. Elston, you are now here hoping to save your marriage by proving your husband is the biological father of your newborn son Caeson. Mr Elston, you recently moved out of your home due to paternity doubts and you are convinced you are not Caeson's father either.
Ms. Elston, I'll start with you. You're in desperate need to save your marriage.
-Yes, Your Honor. -Explain. Because Ladarian moved out, like shorty after Caeson was born.
He's been having paternity issues since we found out Carson was not his. He started saying that this baby doesn't look like me. He's not mine and questions about the conception and he wants to leave his family all of a sudden just because of paternity issues pertaining to Carson.
Wow, it has really taken a turn for the worse. Mr Elston, you felt like you had no other choice but to leave the home? Yes, Your Honor, because I can't keep, you know, going through the same cycle with babies not being mine with the same person, and when Carson came back not mine, it did, you know, it hurt my feelings, but I still stepped up and was a father to him, so I'm just trying to get the honest truth today before I, you know, move on.
[Judge Lake] So how does this doubt make you feel? I mean, you've packed up and moved out of your own home. Left your wife.
Carson, Caeson, I mean-- How do you feel when you look at this baby? I mean, I don't have a bond with him and I don't feel like he's mine. They look alike to me, so they must have the same father and the baby names are yet identical and it's.
. . -[Carli] You named him.
-Something here that she's not telling me. We agreed on the name, I tried changing it plenty of times. He told me he didn't wanna change the name.
No, her friend chose the name, Your Honor. [Judge Lake] So, the truth is, even the name triggers you. -[Ladarian] Yes.
-Because it's so close to Carson, Caeson. Then you look at him, you think they look alike, in your mind, and then you just revisit what you went through the last time you were here when we determined you were not Carson's biological father. -Yes, ma'am.
-So, Mr. Elston, how does your husband's doubt affect you and the family? It's affected us a lot because we're arguing, because you already know Carson's not yours, but you stepped up and I'm glad, so I don't understand how you think Caeson is not yours.
So, Mr Elston, what was your initial doubt? How did you start doubting? Well, Your Honor, [clears throat] when I was at work, I was three hours away.
She texts me, talkin' about she pregnant. So I was like, "I can't leave work just to take you to the hospital. " So she said, "I'll call my cousin and see if he can take me.
" So when I get home, like we just started arguing because I thought this just don't seem right. And she was like, "That wasn't even my cousin, they took me to the hospital anyways, -it was my ex. " -[audience exclaiming] -So.
. . -No, Your Honor, that's not what happened.
What happened was he was at work, so I had a friend come get me, but we already had, you know, issues from the past of me cheating and all this stuff. So I didn't tell him it was my ex, 'cause I didn't want him to think I was sleeping with him or anything. I told him, "That was not my cousin that took me, it was a friend.
" And he asked who, and I told him who it was and I was honest about it. I just did not want no problems in our relationship at that point. [Judge Lake] So you felt like you were just being honest.
[Carli] Yeah, at the end. -At first, I was. .
. -[Ladarian] She could've told me that in the beginning -instead of hiding it from me. -Oh, so she hid it at first.
Yeah, I'm not finna keep doing this. [Judge Lake] Ah. [audience clapping] So, throughout the pregnancy, were you doubting then?
Yes, ma'am, 'cause one day we got to arguing bad and I left the house and she text me and she was like, "That's why Carson wasn't yours, Caeson's not yours either. " And she said, "I married you, just so I could put you on child support just in case you tried to leave me. " And you know, we're separated now -and I'm trying to file for a divorce, so.
. . -[audience exclaiming] -[Judge Lake] Really?
-Now, we're separated when you come over to the house. . .
I have proof of the text messages. Do you have any evidence of. .
. I'd like to see that. Jerome, will you hand me that evidence, please?
-Thank you. -You're welcome. These are text messages between you, Mr Elston, and your wife, Ms.
Elston. You write, "Why do you say that, Carli? " She responds.
. . "He's not even your baby just like Carson wasn't.
" -[audience exclaiming] -Whoa. Mr Elston, you say, "Blank, then don't ask me to do nothing for them. " Ms.
Elston, you say, "Okay, bet, Ladarian. " [reading] [audience exclaiming] Whoa, that's a mouthful right there. Ms.
Elston, how could you expect him to think Caeson was his biological son after that exchange? I just know how to push his buttons. Like, I wasn't trying to like, I already know what to say to him.
He had stayed gone the whole night, and he was out cheating and doing him, and he wants to sit up and say that Caeson is not his, but. . .
So you just said it this one time out of anger? You were just really angry. It happened multiple times.
-So. . .
-[audience exclaiming] -This is not the first-- -I've said it like three times in my pregnancy, yes. [audience exclaiming] Well, Mr Elston, you submitted another text message. Ms.
Elston said, "Caeson is not yours anyways, I blanked your homeboy. " [audience exclaiming] Mr Elston said, "Blank, you dirty dog. " And then Ms.
Elston responded, I'm-a still put you on child support because we married. That's the only reason I married you. Blank.
[audience exclaiming] What kind of conversation is this? I know how to push his buttons, I know how to make him mad. So that's what I was sayin'.
This is not button-pushing. This is bomb-dropping. [Carli] No.
[audience clapping] I mean, these exchanges are designed to destroy. [audience murmuring in agreement] You already said you had one child that was his. Came back not his.
Now you doing this again? Yes. This is toxic.
[audience] Yes. So, if you're so quick to say he's not yours, "That's what I'm-a do is put you on child support," and-- Why do you stand here so convinced that he is Caeson's biological father? When I, um, got pregnant with Carson, I was not in a relationship with Ladarian and we already established that on the last time we was here.
This time, we was engaged, we was living together, and that's the only person I was with when I conceived Caeson. So I'm pretty sure, he. .
. Well, I'm actually 100% positive. -She was sleeping with another guy.
-He is the dad. She was sleeping with another guy. She conceived, she got pregnant and during, she was sleeping with him and me, so.
. . She admitted to my friend that she was cheating too.
[audience exclaiming] I don't understand how you think Caeson is not yours. She admitted to. .
. a friend? Yes, ma'am, my friend came to the house one weekend, it's a female, and she pulled me downstairs when Carli was asleep and told me that Carli had vented to her that she's been cheating, she's been, you know, going to see other people and.
. . Your Honor, this is the same friend that he's sleeping with, so, no, she wants to break us up.
So she wants to break us up and the only reason she's here today is because she wants to say that, um, that he's not the dad and all this stuff which she doesn't know nothin' about. All right, I would like to hear from her directly. -[Carli] I would, too.
-Jerome, would you please escort -Ms. Stanfield into the courtroom? -[audience clapping] [Jerome] Go right up to the witness stand up here?
[Judge Lake] Ms. Stanfield, thank you for joining us. -Yes, ma'am.
-We're here today talking about the paternity of baby Caeson. Uh, during the testimony, it has been brought out that you potentially have a sexual relationship with Mr Elston now. No, Your Honor.
-[Carli] A married man. . .
-You deny that? I have not spoke to either one of them -other than to argue. -[Carli] But she was sleeping with him a week ago.
This was two weeks ago. [audience exclaiming] When you invited me over there. -knowing he wanted to sleep with me.
-I didn't invite you nowhere. No, I did not know this. [Ladarian] See, I don't know what to believe, they're going back and forth and it's.
. . So, Ms.
Stanfield, what do you know about the paternity of Caeson? From what I have heard from both of them, Carli admitting to me that she was sleeping-- [Carli] You don't know, and you have nothing to say here. -Be real.
Be real. -. .
. admitting to me that she was sleeping with other men around the time that she got pregnant. -That her and Ladarian were not together-- -[Judge Lake] Wait a minute.
Tell me specifically. What happened and what did she tell you? The day that I arrived at their house to spend the weekend with them, Ladarian had left because they were already arguing.
She started talking to me saying he's just a dog, he doesn't do anything for her or the kids. That she was sleeping with other men, that she. .
. You just wanna break up our relationship. He does do for me and my kids.
-Stop lying. -I don't want anything to do with you guys. -Stop lying.
-[audience laughing] So, wait. Answer my question. Answer my question.
I asked, what did you know about this? What did she tell you? Basically saying that Caeson was not Ladarian's, that she was sleeping with other men, that Ladarian and Caeson look nothing alike.
Just saying that. . .
They look just alike, you know that. [Stanfield] No, they don't. Every time, that you would ask me, I admitted that Caeson looked just like you.
What did you do with this information, Ms. Stanfield? I told Ladarian.
[Carli] She just wants to break us up 'cause the [bleep] wants to come and get what I have. You have no car, you have no house, you're homeless. Baby, stay where you're at.
He pays all my bills and the car that you all was [bleep] in -was mine, remember that. -[audience exclaiming] Remember that. You're just.
. . No.
Are you proving something? No, she's trying to lie and break up us. Like, I already told you I want my family back.
She's over here trying to tell him that my son is not his. I know my son is his. I'm 100% positive.
Ladarian even told me he didn't believe-- [Judge Lake] But he's moved out of the house. [Carli] He still comes over. .
. And you've also told him he's not the father. Because I was making him mad.
I know how to push his buttons as I said before, but he will go and and be with [bleep] like this and then come back to me and act like everything is okay. That's the problem. [bleep] like this is the problem.
Our son is his, I'm 100% positive. [Judge Lake] No, Ms. Elston, I, uh, I hate to break it to you, but the problem is, you already had one child and you told him he was the father only to come to this courtroom and find out that he wasn't.
That's the problem. [audience clapping] And then you have a second child, and instead of having enough sense to figure out another way to have a conversation, you go right for the low blow and say, "You're not the father, and I slept with your boy and now I'm just gonna put you on child support," and then expect that that's not going to negatively affect your marriage and your relationship. Because what I read on these text messages amounts to emotional abuse.
[audience murmuring in agreement] He already hung in there after last hearing when Carson ended up not being his son, and said he was gonna step up to the plate. Now, and look, I'm gonna just tell you the truth. He's a young, handsome, young guy.
That baby wasn't his. He could've exited stage left, and been gone. And made a full-on family with somebody else.
I-I mean, there's no reason for him to entertain you unless he loved you. [audience murmuring in agreement] You all just sabotaging your lives so early. We got another baby now.
And a marriage on the line. Baby's last name is Elston. That's your family name, that's your name, Mr Elston.
But you don't know if it's yours. That's correct. You know what, Jerome, I'm ready for the results.
[audience cheering] These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. And a marriage on the line. In the case of Elston v.
Elston, when it comes to one-month-old Caeson Elston. . .
it has been determined by this Court. . .
Mr Elston, you. . .
are the father. [audience cheering] Caeson is your little boy. But I'm, you know, I still treat Carson like he's mine too, so I don't show him no different attention.
You're doing an amazing job and thank you for everything. I appreciate it. Thank you.
That's good, honey. That's a good start. I accept your apology, but still there's some.
. . things we got to work on.
[Judge Lake] We can't wrap it up in a bow today. That's for sure. It's been too much water under this bridge.
Y'all gonna float the whole house away. [audience laughing] No, really. And I hope this has been a lesson learned for you.
We have counseling and resources for you all because you all gotta start figuring this out. Ms. Elston.
[audience clapping] You gotta get yourself together, babe. Yes, ma'am. There's an old saying, I can't say it all the way, but.
. . Always says, "Don't let your mouth write a check that your.
. . can't cash.
" I'm serious. Yes, Your Honor. All right.
I want you all to go talk to Dr Jeff, I want you all to start sorting this thing out. I really hope that you can save your marriage. -Yes, ma'am.
-You have two beautiful, beautiful children and I wish you all the very best. Court is adjourned.
