Mother Torn Between Two Men (Full Episode) | Paternity Court

JUDGE LAKE: Please be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello.

JEROME: This is the case of Moody v. Brackins. Thank you, Jerome.

Good day, everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. Ms.

Moody, you have petitioned the court for a DNA test to prove that the defendant is the father of your two-year-old daughter Rae Lynn. You hope these results will save your family, is that correct? Yes, Your Honor.

JUDGE LAKE: MR. Brackins, you say the plaintiff admitted to sleeping with another man and your doubt is overwhelming, but, if the DNA results shock you, you'd consider staying together, is that correct? Yes, Your Honor.

JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Moody, why are today's results so important to you? Because my family is so important to me and if my-- If the results don't turn out to be the way I need them to be and the way that I have full, 100% confidence that they are, my family is on the line, and like I said, my family is everything to me, I don't want to lose my soon-to-be husband.

I don't want to lose what we have, we have something beautiful. And, I just really, really need to prove to him that Rae Lynn is his daughter. So, this is destroying your relationship.

It is, it is. Mr Brackins, this is destroying your relationship? BRACKINS: Yes, Your Honor.

JUDGE LAKE: So, tell me about that. How is it affecting your relationship? I look at this little girl every day, Your Honor, and I've been there for her since day one.

I was there cutting the umbilical cord and everything. I broke my back, Your Honor. I built the foundation, and this means the world to me.

It means everything to me. JUDGE LAKE: But the doubt, BRACKINS: The doubt. .

. that permeates through the fabric of your family is wreaking havoc? Yes, Your Honor, it is destroying us right now.

JUDGE LAKE: I can see it in both of your eyes. And Rae Lynn is two-years-old. So for two years, you've been plagued by paternity doubt.

Yes, Your Honor. Yes, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: So, tell me, how did we get here?

How did a beautiful couple, family, get to a position where your family's on the line because of a paternity issue? Your Honor, I take fault for that. Um, Anthony and I, grew up together, went to school together.

We've known each other for a very, very long time. After graduating high school, we lost, you know, went our separate ways. He went school, I went to school.

And we caught back up, Anthony was away, he was out of town for a while, and, um, we were contacting each other over social media. And just through social media, messages and conversations I was literally head over heels for him, off top. I fell in love with this man And, um.

. . I can't tell no lies, I can't say I was perfect, because I wasn't.

I was still doing my own thing, regardless, that I had these strong feelings for him. He wasn't here, and I was lonely. I needed affection.

I needed attention. Physical affection and attention. Not just a message that I'm receiving from somebody.

I looked elsewhere for that. So, you, slept with someone else? Yes, ma'am, I did.

How long did you entertain this other person, this intimate relationship? Three to four months. I was entertaining this other man.

When Mr Brackins came back in town, I continued to entertain this other man. For several weeks. AUDIENCE: (MURMURING) JUDGE LAKE: Mr Brackins, did you have any idea this was going on?

Your Honor, the whole time, I was away, it felt like we were in a committed relationship. It felt like it was one on one, together, the whole time we were together. And, like I come back home, and it was someone else-- JUDGE LAKE: Oh?

Yeah. MOODY: I was playing two parts. I was playing two roles in life, being two totally different people.

I would come to Mr Brackins, and I would act like-- It wasn't acting, because I did feel it, the emotions, the feelings were there. I was in love with him. But again, I was so caught up in this life I had been living behind his back while he was gone.

That I didn't know how to put an end to that. And, so, that was very hard for me to figure out, "Okay, "how am I gonna stop this? " And pick this up and be faithful to him, and show him that he is what I want in life.

MOODY: He is where I want to be. It was very hard, very hard for me to tell the other guy because I can't lie. I had caught feelings there, too.

There was a sexual relationship. I had caught feelings there, too. So, wait, how did you even find out, Mr Brackins?

Your Honor, I found out through a family member. JUDGE LAKE: What happened? He was like, "Hey man, I need to let you know "that your not the only person.

" There's someone else involved as well. Really? So, that's when I took it as far as, "Hey, it's either gonna be me or him.

" "You gonna have to choose. " JUDGE LAKE: So, at the point you were told, you confronted Ms. Moody and you said.

. . I told her that she's gonna have to make a decision.

She can't keep running back and forth between me and him. JUDGE LAKE: And, so, when he told you, you needed to choose, Ms. Moody, what did you say?

What was your response? My response was automatically, him. There was no question about it.

The other guy's feelings? They went out the window. And that's what I had been so worried about for the weeks before.

I wanted to lay it down smoothly on him. 'Cause he had no clue about Mr Brackins. Okay, but for the purposes of this courtroom, we need to understand this specific question.

While you were with Mr Brackins, when he got back in town, you were still intimate and having sex with the other person, too. So, you were having sex with both men, during that period of time? Your Honor, I would go spend the night with Mr Brackins, and I would literally leave his house in the morning, go to my house, get ready for my day and go to the other man's house, like, AUDIENCE: (GASPS) every day, it was a everyday thing.

(CROWD BOOS) So, how soon, after you broke up with the other man, did you find out you were pregnant? A week and a half. AUDIENCE: (MURMURING) JUDGE LAKE: Okay.

. . JUDGE LAKE: So, the doubt is real.

The doubt is very real. BRACKINS: Yes, Your Honor. I praise this man for being there from day one, because he knew.

Ever since then, the day that he gave the ultimatum, to be with him, or to be with this other man, and I chose him. Even though I had done so much garbage, he didn't hold it against me, he respected that enough that I was okay. I want to get my stuff together, I'm moving in with you and this is what I want.

MOODY: To be honest, my family member, his ex at the time, was teasing about being pregnant, and I was like, "If you'll take a pregnancy test, I'll take one. " It's no big deal. In the back of my head, honestly.

. . A woman knows when something is going on within them.

Yeah. MOODY: We went, we got pregnancy tests, we came back to the house, they went to their house. I locked myself in the bathroom, and I took that pregnancy test and almost instantly, boom, boom, positive.

And my whole world was like, I was happy, but at the same time, it was like, "Oh, my gosh! " What do I do? How do I do this?

Because, I've been in this situation like this before. And I was not wanting to-- I did not want to go through it again. You had been in this situation before?

Yes, ma'am. I have a three-year-old child as well. AUDIENCE: (MURMURING) So, Mr Brackins.

. . Take me to the day you found Ms.

Moody was pregnant. I kind of had a idea that she was taking the pregnancy test. She went in my bathroom, and took the pregnancy test.

I busted in on her and she tells me it's positive, she's pregnant. So, instantly, I'm like. .

. In my head, I'm thinking, "Okay. "Maybe, it could be another guy's, "but I'll take it upon myself.

I want this kid to be mine. " This is my kid. I'm not worried about this other guy.

And yet, despite your devotion, your doubt still kept creeping in. BRACKINS: Your Honor, I can't even put it in words. I just worried about taking care of another man's baby, the whole time.

But, I just looked over it. I looked over it, because I fell in love with this child. BRACKINS: Ever since she came.

When I'm in the floor playing with her, throwing her up in the air, going to the park-- In the back of your mind, you're thinking. . .

I could be taking care of another man's baby. MOODY: Your Honor, I need to prove to him today. Mr Brackins has been through this before, and he's had his heart crushed.

And, I know. . .

I have confidence so much, that she is his. I know she is. To me and so many other people, she looks just like him to me.

And I hope it's not my feelings, my emotions, getting in the way of that. But, it's also because when I look at my daughter, I see him. I don't see me, I see him.

MOODY: Her little attitude, her little sassiness, it's Mr Brackins to a T. It's not just me going off on my own faith and what I want. It's my child's actions as well.

JUDGE LAKE: Ms. Moody, this other man, the man you cut the relationship off with, the man you decided to move on from, did you tell him you were pregnant? I did let him know.

But after letting him know, I lost all contact with him throughout the nine months of pregnancy. Blocked, social media blocked. Numbers, phone numbers blocked.

Everything was blocked. After my daughter was born, this man starts getting friends of friends, um, trying to say, you know, "That baby looks so much like my youngest baby. " He has three children of his own and he was trying to compare my child to his.

So, the other man saw pictures of Rae Lynn. Yes, Your Honor, he did. And he said, that the baby looks like some of my other children?

MOODY: He did. And I believe she's mine. MOODY: He did.

He asked for a DNA test and I would not. JUDGE LAKE: Because you didn't want the answer, and you were scared what the answer would be? Yes, Your Honor, that's the truth.

I was very scared of what the answer could be. JUDGE LAKE: Mr Brackins, I know how upsetting this is, and how difficult this is, but I have to ask you, there is another man saying that he also claims Rae Lynn is his child. Have you ever met this other person?

Yes, I know him. We grew up together. I know him.

JUDGE LAKE: Oh, you know him? Yes, Your Honor. So, you're aware that he's in the community saying he believes Rae Lynn is his child?

BRACKINS: Yes, Your Honor. And now, I see how that doubt and these feelings and these thoughts become even more intense. Because it's not some man you don't know, never met, don't know what he looks like.

This is a man you know. Yeah, a man that I know, see just about every day. It's not no stranger.

JUDGE LAKE: Oh, my goodness. But, I assume, you signed her birth certificate. BRACKINS: Yes, Your Honor.

JUDGE LAKE: But, if you are her legal father, but not her biological father, are you going to be comfortable allowing this other man the opportunity to be a part of her life and for her to know her biological father? Have you thought about that? No, Your Honor.

I don't think I can let him even come close to her, This is my child. MOODY: Your Honor, it's more of a show, for the other man. I hope he would not leave Rae Lynn.

And not be her father figure no more, regardless of what the results are, just so have been him not be the biological father. I hope that he doesn't do that. The other man, would never amount to the father that he is.

But, you do understand that Rae Lynn would deserve the opportunity to know who her biological father is. Every child deserves that. And you do understand that, if, in fact it is determined he is the biological father, he has options to petition the court in your home state.

Yes, Your Honor, I do. JUDGE LAKE: To be able to. .

. Gain the rights to see her and to spend time with her. MOODY: Your Honor, I need him to know that Rae Lynn is his, like I know in my heart.

Because it hurts me to see him hurt. MOODY: I can see the doubt in his eyes. And I want him to know, just as well as I know, I want him to have the same confidence when he's playing with her.

When they're at the park, I don't want that wracking in the back of his brain. MOODY: He loves his child unconditional, but I want him to know he's really loving his child. And not someone else's.

JUDGE LAKE: And your greatest fear is, if his doubts are substantiated, he will leave, your family will be destroyed. My family would be broken. I do not want that.

That's the last thing I want. I need this proven right now. I need him to know.

Mr Brackins, is there anything you'd like to say before I go to the results? I just want the results, Your Honor. JUDGE LAKE: I am not going to let you wait any longer.

This is important. Jerome. (APPLAUDING) These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics, and they read as follows.

JUDGE LAKE: In the case of Moody v. Brackins, as it pertains to two-year-old Rae Lynn Brackins, it has been determined by this court, Mr Brackins, you are her father. AUDIENCE: (CHEERING) How does it feel, Mr Brackins, to look at your beautiful little girl with no doubt in your mind?

Not another thought. It's amazing, Your Honor. Mr Brackins, you've done an amazing thing for this child.

Ms. Moody, you have stood in this courtroom and recited your truth, in a way very few women would be able to. It's because of the way you love your daughter.

And it's because of the way you love Mr Brackins. It's because of the way you love your family, that you were willing to lay it all on the line, to be able to get this answer. And, Mr Brackins, you've done the same.

Because of the way you love Ms. Moody, because of the way you love Rae Lynn, that you were able to stand in this gap, where this doubt existed, and be there for the child and for Ms. Moody.

But, we cannot fall prey to our past, right? Because, it will repeat itself. And if we do not change our behavior, change the way we cope, the way we react, to the difficulties we experience in life, because it's a beautiful rainbow today, but you better believe, baby, the rain is coming again.

Because that's how life is, and that's how relationships are. But, it's how we weather the storm, is what counts, right? MOODY: Yes, Your Honor.

JUDGE LAKE: And so, you want to weather that storm together. We have counseling and resources for you, and I want you to take advantage of it, because it won't always be easy. And, even though you've gotten the answer you wanted today, some days, those things may still creep back in your mind, like, look at all we had to go through, and you've got to have tools to push that behind you, and not focus on the past.

Leave it in the past. And move to the future, okay? I wish you all the very best of luck.

Take care of Rae Lynn. She's a beautiful little girl. Court is adjourned.