Please be seated. Hello, Your Honor. Hello.
This is the case of Kennedy vs. Pope. Thank you, Jerome.
Good day, everyone. AUDIENCE: Good day. Mr Kennedy, you claim to be a nice guy who was forced to make the tough decision to drag the defendant to court to prove you did not father her three-month-old son, Christian.
Is that correct? Yes, Your Honor. Ms.
Pope, you and your mother are insulted that Mr Kennedy denies paternity and refused to acknowledge your child. You say he laid down with you and now he has to step up and pay. Is that correct?
Yes, Your Honor. So, Mr Kennedy, why do you believe that Ms. Pope claims you're the father of her three-month-old baby?
I believe she's just looking for someone to pin it on or pick up the slack from her previous, you know, encounter. And so, take me back to the nature of your relationship. Um.
. . It started off as just friends.
We met through a mutual friend. Um. .
. It got physical, um, once we got to know each other and it. .
. So did you enter into a committed relationship? Were you boyfriend and girlfriend?
No. Brief. .
. JUDGE LAKE: No? I would say briefly.
No, we never did. It never had the chance to take off. Uh.
We did get along in the beginning, but he was a jerk and I no longer wanted to be around that. So, wait a minute. Why were you sleeping with him if he was a jerk?
He came off as an all-American guy in the beginning. He was. .
. We had a lot of things in common. We had the same birthday and the same football team.
That's enough to sleep with somebody, Jerome. Birthday and a football team. JEROME: Okay.
So, the bottom line is, you all got along in the beginning and you start a sexual relationship with him. Yes, Your Honor. At what point did you realize this.
. . this all-American guy wasn't what he seemed to be?
When he started to say that I had feelings over my ex, and that wasn't the case. If I was not over my ex, I wouldn't be trying to involve myself with anybody else. So, wait a minute, Mr Kennedy.
You're saying that's not true. Yes, Your Honor. What is your version?
My version is we were friends from the beginning and then it became, you know, I guess, friends-with-benefits kind of an ordeal. All right, so then you were just, basically you call it "friends with benefits"? But you were having a sexual relationship and you were not using protection.
Yes, Your Honor. All right. So, Ms.
Pope, at some point you say the table start to turn. In your mind. Yes, Your Honor.
Because he accuses you of having feelings for your ex? That's not even remotely true. The reason why.
. . My feelings had changed was because she didn't have a GED, she didn't have a future plan going for her.
At the time, I was going to school for my associates and criminal justice. I was working and raising my first son and it wasn't until my friend told me, you know, "She doesn't have anything going for her at the moment "so you need to drop it like a bad habit. " (AUDIENCE EXCLAIMS) Wait a minute.
No, a bad habit is sleeping with someone you barely know without using protection. That's a bad habit. This.
. . Now I don't know if this young woman can be labeled a bad habit.
Yes, Your Honor. All right. So now, you did make the decision to kind of pull back from this relationship.
. . Mmm-hmm.
And so when she says, "He starts being a jerk "and not returning my calls," the truth is, you were doing that. Yeah. I admit it.
Yeah. All right. Ms.
Pope, at least that part of your testimony has been substantiated. So you. .
. So I wanna understand, the moment when you find out you're pregnant, what happens? POPE: I found out that I was pregnant at six weeks.
I had a Cudie one morning and threw it up at work. I put the two and two together. It wasn't rocket science and I knew that I was pregnant, and after that point, he really didn't have much to say over the fact that I was.
And, Mr Kennedy, do you remember when she told you she was pregnant? Uh, she told me around May or June or July. At that point she had said there were two other gentlemen involved and I had asked her, "Could it potentially be mine?
" And she said, "No. You're in the clear. " So at that point, I completely.
. . JUDGE LAKE: Oh!
I never said he was in the clear. I completely. .
. But wait, you also didn't say there were two other men involved, Ms. Pope, when you just testified.
You can't leave things out as important as that. We're inPaternity Court. Those facts matter.
(APPLAUSE) I wanna understand, when you told him that, did you tell him, "I'm pregnant but don't worry because "there's two other men"? No, Your Honor. I never told him not to worry.
This is something that he needs to worry about. Obviously, he already has a son. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) If you count from May 6th to January 26th or 28th, whenever the child was born.
That's 40 plus weeks. So, the bottom line is you did the math and subtracted yourself out the equation. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) I tried to, yeah.
POPE: That's exactly what he did. JUDGE LAKE: Okay. That's what I was trying to figure out.
Now. . .
I didn't hear from her until after the child was born saying, "You're the father. " POPE: I'm not about to beg for support. Wait a minute.
How does she tell you you were the father? Um, through Facebook. I got messages.
Jerome, let me see those messages. And it'd been. .
. So wait a minute. It is your testimony, I wanna be clear.
It is your testimony that she did not tell you she even had the baby until after the baby was already here. She didn't tell you anything about the pregnancy, anything. You didn't hear from her until after the baby was born.
I had messaged him the night that I went into labor. And you get some messages. Yes, Your Honor.
Let me read through these messages. (JUDGE LAKE READING ALOUD) JUDGE LAKE: And you replied "About? " (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) And she replied, "Would you like to guess?
" And then you replied, "No. " (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) And then, Ms. Pope says, "Okay.
Well, I'm not sure how to say this. "So I'll just show you. " (AUDIENCE EXCLAIMS) And you send a picture of the baby.
Yes, it looks just like him. So, when you saw this message, Mr Kennedy, what did you think? I asked her straight point blank, "Are you sure it's mine?
" Because the last information I was given, there were two other gentlemen involved, so, I wasn't exactly sure if it really was mine or not. I made a promise to my children, any children that I had, I'm gonna be the father I never had, so. .
. If that's your promise, where is it at then? You didn't tell me until after the child was born.
How am I supposed to know it's my child. . .
Showing up one time. . .
Unless you don't tell me right away. You told me there were two gentlemen involved. You were never involving yourself to begin with.
I didn't think I had to. You told me there were two other men involved. Were the two other men involved, Ms.
Pope? Yes. six-hour trip out of my day to go up and actually see the child through with my own eyes, just to make sure she was being truthful.
I didn't get anything until after the child was born. So, when you took the time and went up to see Christian, what happened? I just held him for a while, trying to gather, you know, anything, any kind of, you know, quirks that might relate him to myself from my other, you know, kids or anything like that.
Um. . .
Trying to find any similarities between him and I. And, um. .
. That was basically it. I went up just to.
. . Mainly just to see the baby from my own eyes.
Just to make sure that this wasn't a ruse of some sort. He did come. He came to see us.
My mom came in and she said, "Oh, you look just like Christian. " I don't know why he's trying to deny it now. It's not about the two other gentlemen.
It's about the fact that he needs to step up to the plate. Your Honor, there's no plate to step up to if I didn't know the plate was there. POPE: Well, he does now.
(APPLAUSE) How am I supposed to step up to a plate when you specifically tell me I'm not the father and then months later, try to get me to step up? I would have been there from the beginning if you would've told me 100% this is my child. It's not a choice.
(APPLAUSE) But, Ms. Pope, you do have to own the fact that once you tell a man or he becomes aware that there are two other possibilities, you do have a responsibility to get clarity on that. Do you agree with that?
And that's why you're here. POPE: That's why I'm here. Your Honor, can I have.
. . I have something to say.
You know, I've been picking up the pieces from my daughter and I've been her main support, and the day that he came to my house I told him he looked just like my grandson, and he accepted. I was told it wasn't mine, that's part of why I just wanted to figure it out. Listen.
. . I think what's so important is, listen, Mom, you needed to have your say, you needed to explain where you're coming from and I understand that.
Yeah. Your daughter admitted that there were maybe two other possibilities. When you tell a man that there are maybe two possibilities, that equals doubt.
It. . .
That's what it is. Your Honor, I had sent her messages briefly after that, you know, asking about, you know, "Well, if it is mine, "can we get a paternity test just to verify, you know. .
. " But I'm not gonna depend on all talk. I wanna see some action.
Well, what action when you didn't have any action to begin with. (APPLAUSE) Well, I beg to differ. There was definitely some action going on that's why we're here.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS) Right? I have paternity papers and everything ready for him to sign. But I have the result and that's going to determine whether or not he should execute those papers.
Yeah, he never came to my door and said, "I'm ready to figure this out. Let's go do this. "Let's get this done.
" You didn't inform me about any of this until after he was already born. Ms. Pope, what I think.
. . I feel like you're missing is that you did admit that there were two other possibilities and what he.
. . Yeah, I admitted it.
What he's saying is, is he took the approach. If you didn't reach out to him and you didn't include him, you must not have really thought he was the father. I understand your mom's approach where her thought process is, if you think you potentially could be her child's father you need to follow up and make sure you are not this child's biological father.
You know, he's too concerned about who are other options, when to begin with. He never told me who was on the other side of his gate. I also found out that there was another woman in his life that also had a child three months prior to me.
If he would have told me that he was with somebody else and that she was also pregnant, I would have never even bothered with him. But. .
. (SIGHS) And that's not great to hear. I understand that.
. . POPE: He wasn't truthful about that.
I was truthful about the other two men that I was with. Yeah, after she had asked you and pried it out of you. Listen, I mean it sounds like both of you, you admitted that it was just a relationship where you were friends with benefits.
So, you didn't have a commitment. No, Your Honor. And that's why I say all of the time, young people, you all having sex and playing it like it's Monopoly and it's not better with more people.
It's not! (APPLAUSE) It really isn't! It just isn't.
Because it gets complicated. It does. He used me to cheat on somebody else and that's the worst part of it.
Were you developing a love and a real admiration for him only to find out that he had been with another woman the whole time and that she was pregnant, too? Yes, Your Honor. And that's what really hurt.
Yes, Your Honor. And so now, listen. You are not the first young woman who has accepted a casual relationship with a man, but developed stronger feelings.
You're not alone in that. And how did that make you feel? I felt like an option in his life that he could just pick and choose whose life he wants to mess with.
Have you ever had a chance to tell him how that made you feel? Yes, I have. I told him that it sucks to feel like an option.
And you felt like you were just one of his options? Yes, Your Honor. And now you feel like your baby.
. . He's basically opted out of your baby.
POPE: Yes. JUDGE LAKE: Take a moment and just explain to him how you really felt. (VOICE BREAKING) I felt like I wasn't gonna give my son the life he deserves because I didn't know whether or not to have a complete jerk who is a father in his life or to just say the best things about you and hope that, you know, maybe one day you'll choose to step up to the plate and be there for him.
Not once did I say I would not be there for the child. I just wanna verify that it's truly mine and I'm not gonna be taking care of someone else's. (APPLAUSE) JUDGE LAKE: How did we get to this point?
Seem like you all had this understanding. You was sleeping with other people, she was sleeping with other people. Okay, it's a mess.
You know, you get pregnant, you don't know exactly who the father is, but I can see now what was happening. Once she realized that she was an option to you, then she was entertaining other men probably just to try to have something to do while she knew you were with somebody else. And I tell young women that this is not a game you're ever gonna be the man at.
Women can do a lot of things. We are very powerful. But we rarely win this game.
Because somehow we slip up and get pregnant. I mean, this never changes. Does it, Jerome?
The saga never changes. If you try to go tit for tat with a man on having casual sex and trying to get back, well, something's gonna happen and when you end up pregnant the buck stops. And, Ms.
Pope, as much as I understand your plight better now I wanna ask you this, I have to. If he is not Christian's biological father, do you know where the other two gentlemen are? Yes, Your Honor.
You do. And would they want to be a part of Christian's life? Would they put themselves, make themselves available to testing so that we can get this confirmed once and for all for this beautiful baby?
Yes, Your Honor. All right. With that said, Jerome, I'm ready to get the results.
JEROME: Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.
These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of Kennedy vs. Pope, when it comes to three-month-old Christian Pope, it has been determined by this court, Mr Kennedy, you.
. . .
. . are the father.
(APPLAUSE) You are the father. All right. How do you feel?
Like I got a lot of work to do. Ms. Pope.
. . Thank you, Your Honor.
You're welcome. This is why we're here. Not just for you, but for Christian.
Yes. Because now he gets to know his dad and grow up with his dad. Yes.
Would it be okay if Christian saw his father? Yes, that's what I want for him. In my chambers?
Yes, that's what I want for him. Excellent. We've got to accept that these results, we've now planted a seed for a new day.
He didn't know for sure. And so now we're here and there is no more doubt. Because we have the answer.
POPE: Okay. And so now what I want to do is to get your grandson, your beautiful baby, reunited with his father. I want them to be able to form a bond.
I want them to be able to have a relationship, the relationship you say you never had and the relationship you obviously didn't have from your mother's testimony. We can break this generation of curse today. POPE: Yes.
Can we do that? Yes, Your Honor. All right.
I will meet you all in my chambers. Court is adjourned.
